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I 



I 




THE HOMELESS BOY. 
At Eight Years of Age. 



A DREAM OF LIFE 

IN OTHER WORLDS 
WITH GOD IN EVERYTHING 



MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



OSCAR 


W. STREETER 


"The 


Homeless Boy" 


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BOSTON 


BANNER OF LIGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY 




1901 




^ 



Library of Conflresa 
IWU COP«S «f.CtWED 

FEB 4 \m 



SECOND COPY 



Copyright, 1901, 

O. W. Streeter 






70 3^^'! 



TYPOGRAPHY AND PRESSWORK 
S. J. PARKHILl a CO., BOSTON. U. S. A. 



INTRODUCTION 

By Harrison D. Barrett 



The life of every self-made man is always replete with 
interesting facts to the reading public. The biography of 
Hon. Oscar W. Streeter is no exception to this rule. Born in 
the humble home of a country physician in one of the Middle 
Atlantic States, he was early thrown out upon the world as a 
society waif, and experienced all of the hardships and vicissi- 
tudes that fall to the lot of the average homeless boy. The 
story of his struggle with cruel poverty, with the stony 
hearted indifference of the masters to whom he was bound, 
with the physical sufferings visited upon him, is full of inter- 
est, yet is not made too prominent in the brief sketch of his 
busy life. In perusing this interesting record, the reader finds 
himself rejoicing in every victory won by the " Homeless 
Boy,' and in the determined purpose he ever manifested in 
his battle with the world to achieve success. His indomitable 
will carried him through many stern conflicts that would have 
appalled even stoutest hearts. But he saw beyond, the goal of 
success, and he never lowered his gaze even when the battle 
raged most fiercely around him. 

His escape from bondage, his journey westward, his deter- 
mined battle with the forces of nature, his zealous efforts to 
obtain an education, are all touched upon in a way that cannot 
fail to hold the interest of the reader from first to last. His 
descriptions of frontier life and the condition of the unbroken 
prairies and forests of the Great West throw a new light 
upon the history of the early settlement of the Mississippi 
Valley and adjacent regions. In fact, it is not too much to 



11 INTRODUCTION 

say that Mr. Streeter has brought out many historical facts 
hitherto unknown to those who have presumed to write upon 
the subject of Western life. In this respect his work will 
have an added value, and will become a book of reference to 
those who in the future will be called upon to deal with the 
history of the West. Perhaps he could have said more with 
respect to the subjugation of the Western wilds for the profit and 
pleasure of his readers, but what he has given bears the great 
merit of authenticity, which stamps it as being of the utmost 
value to those who shall read his teeming pages. 

His entrance into the political arena marked an epoch in his 
life. From humble beginnings he had hewn his own pathway 
up the mountain of Difficulty, and every step was cut into the 
solid rock of Destiny. There is something of great interest to 
the student of human nature as he watches or marks the devel- 
opment of the powers of a human soul. Psychologically con- 
sidered, the life of Judge Streeter offers a wide field of research. 
As he climbed the mountain side, he gained confidence in him- 
self, and was soon able to wield a healthful influence over his 
fellowmen. He was called to many positions of trust and 
honor, but he never failed to render a just and true account 
of his stewardship. He was the friend of the people and 
their interests were his interests throughout his long and use- 
ful public career. From the day of his admission to the prac- 
tice of law down to the present hour. Judge Streeter's aim has 
been to conserve the ends of justice and to rise above the petty 
technicalities that are too often resorted to in order to thwart 
an equitable adjustment of the points at issue. 

The story of his official life is brief, and yet there is one act 
in his career as a legislator that should endear his memory to 
the millions of people now residing in the great Northwest. 
That act is the framing of the famous " Homestead Law," and 
the labor he expended in securing its enactment as a portion 
of the statutes of his State. To that act thousands of the 
worthy poor in the North Star State owe their homes and 
homesteads to-day. His patriotism is only incidentally men- 



INTRODUCTION 111 

tioned, yet he offered his sword to his country in the dark 
days of the Rebellion, and did his best to preserve the integ- 
rity of the old flag. His reminiscences of Gen. James Shields, 
as well as the letters from that noble patriot, are replete with 
information, yet the reader will find himself wishing that 
Judge Streeter's associations with that famous military hero 
had been described at greater length. Judge Streeter retired 
from the army when his chief was compelled to resign his com- 
mand, but he had won for himself a colonelcy through his de- 
votion to duty. Military glory is only an incident in the life 
of the most successful chieftain who ever led the serried hosts 
of men into action, hence, while it is a part of the history of 
Judge Streeter's life, it pales into insignificance when contrasted 
with that which he has won in other fields of labor. 

Of his travels through the Dakotas, Montana, the then terri- 
tories of the Rocky Mountains, also California, Mexico, Arizona 
and New Mexico, more could have been said for the enlighten- 
ment of the reader. In those far-off days the countries he vis- 
ited were but sparsely settled by whites, and were the homes 
of roving bands of Indians. The mineral wealth, the arable 
lands, the forests, and other important matters connected with 
every unsettled country could not fail to be of interest to the 
student of history, who will, therefore, wish that these travels of 
the Judge had been given greater prominence in the narrative. 
But he has said enough to lead the earnest reader to search 
for other and completei histories of the sections mentioned, 
hence his work will be the schoolmaster to lead those who 
read it to a knowledge of the truth. The Judge throws much 
light, even in his brief pages, upon the conditions of the early 
settlers of what are now the great Rocky Mountain States. Of 
the birds and animals that were then plentiful, he also makes 
mention, and thereby shows his readers what changes time has 
wrought in the States mentioned. 

Modest reference is made to his acquaintance and associa- 
tion with the noted statesmen and jurists of long ago. For 
many years he was the law partner of Gen. Thomas Ewing, 



IV INTRODUCTION 

an eminent leader in Ohio politics in past years. He was 
brought into association with the most prominent statesmen of 
the land, and yet finds time to only briefly refer to those rela- 
tions. It was his aim to be a man among men, rather than to 
shine by the light of the glory reflected by even the greatest of 
men. It is only fair to say that Judge Streeter easily made 
friends, and that he had the happy faculty of keeping them 
after they once became his friends. It is ever thus with 
strong natures who have been able to conquer environment, 
and to trample upon the hindrances of circumstance. Such a 
man never fails to leave an indelible mark for good upon the 
history of his State or nation. This Judge Streeter has already 
done through his legal, his legislative and other official acts for 
more than fifty years. 

Probably no man is better versed in the history of the North- 
west than is Judge Streeter. He has been identified with it from 
the time of the first settlements that were made in the unbroken 
wilderness of the West, and has literally grown up with the coun- 
try. Fame and fortune have long been his, and the former will 
never desert his name. Misfortunes may deprive him of mate- 
rial wealth, but the higher riches of good deeds and a well-spent 
life are his forever. He is in all respects a self-made man, and 
he deserves every honor that has been bestowed upon him. He 
has been connected with many of the most important legal bat- 
tles that have been waged in the courts of the Northwestern 
States, and has seldom come out second best. His most re- 
cent victory is the famous Stinson land case that has just been 
decided in favor of his clients by the highest authority of his 
State. 

His leading poem, "A Dream of Life in Other Worlds," and 
the incidental poetical effusions that follow, indicate with suffi- 
cient clearness the trend of his thought in philosophy and re- 
ligion. Such being the case, these poetical offerings need no 
analysis here ; they speak for themselves, and reveal a tender 
side in the life history of the man who wrote them. His soul 
is filled with the spirit of poesy, and he breathes into words the 



INTRODUCTION V 

lofty religious sentiments that have ever prompted him in ac- 
tion. Judge Streeter has seen his wife and children depart 
from earth, leaving him entirely alone in the world. He has 
met reverses in fortune, and has had to contend with ill-health. 
But his manly soul has risen above every wave of adversity, 
towered far over the agony of seeming death, subdued physical 
pain, and with the clear eye of soul has been able to look 
beyond, into that land to which his loved ones have gone, 
where he can see them 

" In the midst of the soul's calm sunshine and heartfelt joy," 
waiting to give him a loving welcome home. 

His book is replete with instruction, and teems with the lof- 
tiest ethical and religious precepts. He has never been willing 
to take things for granted, but has ever endeavored to get at 
the bottom facts in connection with every question to which 
his attention has been called. He aims in this work to enter- 
tain as well as instruct his readers, and to give them higher 
ideals concerning the nature and destiny of man. A sunny 
optimism runs through his poetical compositions, and he 
holds steadfastly to the thought of the ultimate triumph of 
the good in all relations in life. In such a spirit he can af- 
ford to offer his book to the public without a misgiving, in the 
hope that it will be the means of helping some few persons at 
least to find a truer and nobler method of living while on earth, 
and loftier and sunnier revelations of the life that awaits all of 
the children of men in the realms of the soul. 



INTRODUCTION 



OSCAR W. STREETER, "THE HOMELESS BOY." 

Oscar W. Streeter, author of the work here 
submitted, was born in the city of Syracuse, in the 
State of New York, somewhere between 182 1 and 
1828, as near as can be ascertained. The exact 
date cannot be given, for the reason that the 
domestic circle was broken in his early days, and 
the family so widely separated that they never met 
in after years. The homeless boy was the youngest 
son of Dr. Barton Streeter, a graduate of Dart- 
mouth College, a first surgeon in the War of 181 2, 
was distinguished in his profession, and died before 
reaching middle age, leaving a widow with four 
children, three of whom were dependent upon 
some one for a living. For years previous to his 
death, the father ran a drug store in connection 
with his practice, and had become so involved it 
took everything he left to pay his debts, and the 
family was destitute, with only one of the four 
children able to earn his living. In this unpleasant 
condition the mother and two youngest children 
found shelter with her friends. The older boy 
was provided with a place to work, but the younger, 



6 INTRODUCTION 

the homeless boy, had not where to lay his head, 
and, as the last resort, was taken by his mother to 
the poorhouse at Lyons, State of New York, and 
left there to mingle with other unfortunate home- 
less children. 

How long he remained at this home of the poor 
is not on record, but from best information it was 
about sixteen months. Then for the first time he 
was visited by his mother, who found him in a 
deplorable condition — unkempt, ragged and dirty. 
The mother at once applied hot water, soap, combs, 
and other means to improve his appearance for 
meeting parties expected the next day. The par- 
ties duly arrived, and were Dr. Baldwin, his wife 
and daughter, from Clarkstown — a pleasant little 
town, twenty miles west of Rochester, N. Y. After 
a brief visit with the mother and boy, the doctor 
made a proposition to take the boy, which the 
mother accepted ; and in a very short time Dr. 
Baldwin and family, with the homeless boy and his 
mother, were off for Clarkstown. 

On their arrival Lawyer Selden (well known to 
the legal fraternity as the author of the New York 
Selden Reports) was sent for, and he drew the 
indentures, which in substance provided that the 
boy was to remain with the doctor until twenty- 
one years old, in consideration of which he was to 
have his board and clothes, with three months of 
schooling each year, and, at the age of twenty-one, 
one additional suit of clothes and a horse, saddle 



INTRODUCTION 7 

and bridle. This was all the compensation allowed 
under the old ironclad rule. But the contract was 
read, signed and witnessed, and the mother started 
for her friends and did not see her homeless boy 
again, or know his whereabouts, until just before 
she died. 

No family record was left with the doctor or the 
boy, by which the latter's age, or that of other 
members of his family, could be known. 

The doctor and his family had now secured full 
control of the homeless boy, and no time was lost 
before giving him instructions as to what he must 
do and what he must not do. The first rule 
excluded him from the dining-room, where the 
family took their meals, and transferred him to the 
kitchen, where he was fed on the crumbs from his 
master's table, and did not always fare as well as 
the pigs. Often when sent with slop to the pen, 
he would see good buttered toast floating on top, 
and would pick it out and eat it before feeding the 
pigs. Such unkind treatment, which was not de- 
served, was resented by the doctor's only child, his 
daughter Laura, but without effect, for her father 
was a tyrant by nature. Her mother was intel- 
lectually bright, but with strong prejudices and a 
preference for the aristocratic circles of society. 
She had a smiling face, but Nature had marred the 
whole picture by placing her eyes too near the top 
of her head ; of which the observation and experi- 
ence of ages have said, Beware ! 



e INTRODUCTION 

Long before the end of the first year the home- 
less boy learned that he had one reliable friend in 
Miss Laura Baldwin, only heir to her father's 
wealth, and the prospective bride of Lawyer Selden, 
whom she subsequently married. 

Hopeful that he might escape from the tyrant 
under whose care and protection he had been 
placed, and abandoned by his mothef, he deter- 
mined to make an effort, with the aid of his friend 
Laura, to go to other friends, who lived in Pennsyl- 
vania, whenever an opportunity presented itself. 
The following day after this decision he met Miss 
Laura alone, told her in confidence what he most 
desired to do and asked her assistance, which she 
kindly promised. The time was fixed and she pre- 
pared an open letter describing the route to be 
taken, giving the names of places through which he 
had to pass, and asking all who might meet the 
homeless boy to extend to him parental care. 

Sunday, the day fixed, arrived, and, while the old 
folks were preparing for church, Laura was putting 
the boy's clothing into his little oil-cloth satchel, 
which he brought from the poorhouse. His cloth- 
ing: consisted of one chancre of roundabout and 
pants, made together, and one change of shirts — 
all of which were placed in the little satchel, with a 
generous lunch on top. As soon as the old folks 
had left for church, and all was still, they started 
for the garden, taking a box to aid the boy in get- 
ting over the fence into the woods. The fence was 



INTRODUCTION 9 

about ten feet high, but with the box and Laura to 
boost, the boy had no trouble in getting over. 
Laura then took her little purse from her pocket, 
with one dollar and thirty-five cents (all she had), 
placed purse and money in the satchel, and stand- 
ins: on the box threw the satchel over the fence to 
the boy, and with many kind expressions and a 
sisterly farewell, they parted. 

And now the homeless boy, a mere baby in years, 
with his little satchel and stick, started out on the 
old trail that led outside of the village limits to the 
Brockport road — this route being taken to avoid 
notice and detection. He found the road as di- 
rected, and continued his journey, believing that if 
no misfortune befell him he would soon find a home 
with his friends. Fearing pursuit, he made his bed 
the first night in a rick of hay in a meadow. 

Taking a cold lunch for supper and another for 
breakfast, he started early on his way, but was fre- 
quently annoyed by dogs, who seemed surprised 
at seeing so small a boy traveling the road alone, 
with a pack on his back and a stick in his hand. 
Some of the dogs were ugly and threatened him, 
and the boy did not know what to do to protect 
himself. Finally he concluded to offer to the next 
dog who refused him the right of way a piece of 
bread and butter and, taking a piece from the 
satchel and putting it in his pocket, he trudged 
along. At the next house a seemingly vicious dog 
came rushing out and, in warlike position in front 



lO INTRODUCTION 

of the boy, fenced up the road. The boy offered 
the piece of bread and butter ; the dog accepted it 
and walked off, and the boy walked on. 

The homeless boy was struggling along, tired 
and hungry, when overtaken by a gentleman travel- 
ing his way in a carriage, who, attracted by the 
youthful appearance of the boy, invited him to ride, 
and carried him directly to the friends he was seek- 
ing in Wellsboro, Pa. 

On his arrival the boy found that his friends had 
received a confidential letter from Miss Laura 
Baldwin, saying that her father had searched the 
town and county over and intended to continue the 
search until he found the boy. This excited his 
friends, who told him that under the authority 
given by his mother. Dr. Baldwin could take him, 
no matter where he found him. This so alarmed 
the child that he determined not to remain. In the 
meantime he learned that a German family would 
leave Wellsboro at once for Galena, 111., which at 
that time was the western border of civilization. 
The little fellow was anxious to go, and asked his 
friends, who were familiar with his unfortunate con- 
dition, to assist him, which they did by furnishing 
money and making arrangements for him with the 
German, under whose protection they placed him. 

Four days later they were on the steamer Mes- 
senger, gliding down the Ohio River. The family 
and their small companion were on deck. They 
furnished their own blankets and cooked their own 



INTRODUCTION 1 1 

meals. There was a lar^e cook-stove on deck for 
the use of the deck passengers. Nearly every civil- 
ized nation on earth was represented on this boat, 
and the stove was for the benefit of all. But among- 
the passengers was a family from Cornwall, Eng- 
land, who had possession of two berths nearest the 
stove, and wanted to hold it for their own exclu- 
sive use. 

One morning the German sent the child to the 
stove with a pan of fat meat to fry. Thinking the 
Cornishman would not disturb him, he placed the 
pan on the stove, as he supposed he had a right to 
do, and the meat was nearly cooked, when the 
Cornishman, who was about six feet high and over- 
bearing, ordered him to take the pan from the 
stove and leave. The boy refused, saying he had 
as good right to cook on the stove as any one on 
deck, and remained firm. The Cornishman stepped 
about half-way round the stove, and reached for the 
boy, saying, " I will twist your nose ! " " No, you 
won't," answered the boy as he raised the panful 
of hot grease and threw it all into the Briton's face 
and eyes. The man was blind and nearly crazed 
for a while, but the boy did not mind that, but 
coolly procured more meat and kept on frying. 

The battle of the frying-pan brought the home- 
less boy into notice. He was now the hero of the 
hour and had more friends on board than any other 
passenger on deck. All were astonished that so 
small a boy should have the courage to defend his 



12 INTRODUCTION 

rights, and there was nothing too good for him on 
that boat. 

The old steamer Messenger landed the party at 
Galena on the twenty-sixth day of June, 1836. 
The boy remained with his benefactor until the 
latter found him a place in a restaurant, where he 
worked until he had earned and saved enough to 
give himself a common-school education. He was 
too poor to go higher and hence all the education 
he received in after years was from study outside 
of the schoolhouse, and mostly by the midnight lamp 
of a bachelor's hall. 

Two years after the homeless boy landed in Ga- 
lena, while he was yet at work where the German 
placed him, he was asked by a visitor what progress 
he was making, and replied that he was doing well; 
that his wages had been raised from time to time, 
enabling him to save some money, with which he 
intended to begin the study of law, and complete it 
as soon as circumstances would permit ; and that, if 
he could not accomplish it in any other way, he 
would work half the year and study the rest of the 
time. It was in that way he acquired thorough 
knowledge of law. He began practice in justice's 
courts of Jo Daviess County, Illinois ; then moved 
to Beetown, in Grant County, Wisconsin, and there 
continued in practice until he crossed the river into 
Iowa and went to Minnesota, where he was admitted 
to practice before Welsh, chief justice of the Terri- 
tory of Minnesota, in 1852. 



INTRODUCTION 



13 



And here we close the historical sketch of the 
early life of our subject and leave him with those 
who know him best, who have followed his trail 
from youth to mature years, and have noted the 
successful and even brilliant career of the poor 
boy who was left on the western border of civ- 
ilization, without money, friends or home, but who 
raised himself to where his country's records honor 
him as lawyer, statesman and author. 

In 1847 he was called upon to make a political 
canvass for Moses M. Strong and others, candidates 
for deleo;ates in the convention called to frame a 
constitution for the State of Wisconsin. In 1848 
he was called out again to make a canvass for 
Nelson Dewey, who was elected the first governor 
of the State of Wisconsin. 

In 1849 Minnesota was organized out of the ter- 
ritory lying west of Wisconsin. The act of Con- 
gress declared certain portions of the northwestern 
part organized for judicial purposes ; but no pro- 
vision of courts was made for the southern part of 
the territory, for but few settlers were there at 
that time. 

During this interesting period of his life our 
subject made the acquaintance of a lady in Bee- 
town by the name of Miss Geraldine Paddock, 
and married her in 1848 — the same year Wiscon- 
sin was married to the Union — and then deter- 
mined to cross the Mississippi and settle. And 
with wife, blankets, gun, cow, dog, (Blackstone), a 



14 INTRODUCTION 

yoke of cattle and a crazy old wagon, he started 
for the river, reached Prairie du Chien in good 
time, and camped for an early start the next day. 
The morning was bright. The Mississippi River 
never looked grander or better entitled to its ap- 
pellation of " the Father of Waters." The pair 
put themselves and all they possessed on the 
old fiat-bottomed ferry boat and were carried over 
to settle on the romantic side of the great river. 
Upon reaching the opposite shore they started, 
with their little train, on a blind trail for their pros- 
pective home beyond the line of civilization. Along 
the river they saw only Indians and their wigwams. 
On reaching the landing at Lansing, near the Min- 
nesota line, the only place a white settler could be 
seen, they pitched their tent and there remained 
until more settlers came in on both sides of the line. 
A little time w^as taken in preparing a shelter for 
the family at Lansing, an.d then he crossed over the 
line and secured a claim under the shadow of Wild 
Cat Bluff, the second highest along the Mississippi 
River, and here was the prospective home of the 
hitherto homeless boy. After building a log shanty 
on his claim, he returned to Lansing and prepared 
for a trip to gain admission to the bar. He had 
learned the exact time of the regular term of the 
district court at Red Wing, over which Chief Jus- 
tice Welsh presided, and timed his trip so well that 
he went to Red Wing, was admitted, and returned 
the third day. 



INTRODUCTION 1 5 

With Blackstone and two or three more dusty 
volumes of law he opened his office at Lansing, 
and remained in business there until the close of 
1853, when he and family crossed the line and set- 
tled on his claim at Wild Cat Bluff, where other 
settlers were coming in, and the country about was 
filling up rapidly. 

New counties had been formed, including the 
county of Fillmore, the boundary lines of which ex- 
tended south to Iowa, west from the Mississippi to 
Range Eighteen and north to Winona County, 
which included a large territory, with the county seat 
at Winona, fifty miles away, which was greatly in- 
convenient to settlers, and a division was asked 
for and granted. A new county was created out 
of the country in the southeast corner of the Ter- 
ritory, with its county seat located at Brownsville, 
or Wild Cat Bluff. The name of the county was 
suggested by Oscar W. Streeter, who proposed to 
call it Houston, in honor of old Sam Houston, of 
Texas. The name was adopted by the county 
commissioners and has never been changed. The 
boundary lines, name of county and location of 
county seat were entirely satisfactory to all who 
were interested in the future development of the 
town and county. 

And here, among those romantic hills which 
overlook the Father of Rivers, is where the active 
business life of the homeless boy w^as begun ; and 
whatever may be added to the pages already written 



l6 INTRODUCTION 

will be a continuation of the life and services of 
O. W. Streeter, the identical homeless boy so often 
referred to in this brief sketch of his eventful life. 

In 1854 the United States land office for the 
Root River Land District was located at Browns- 
ville, which pleased the settlers and brightened the 
prospects of our subject, who had been struggling 
against waves of adversity from childhood to ma- 
turer years, without friends, money or home. He 
had often said, what he now repeats, " that if ever 
placed in a public position, where he could protect 
the homes of the poor, he would use all the power, 
influence and ability at his command to accomplish 
it." And that he fulfilled the promise he made to 
himself (not to the people), the public records 
will show, as may be seen in the journal of 
the Minnesota Senate of 1858. He has done more 
than all he promised himself to do. He saved the 
homes of settlers in the Root River Land District, 
in southern Minnesota in 1854 and 1855, from 
greedy speculators during the sale of public lands, 
a fact which is noticed among the printed publica- 
tions which follow and to which particular attention 
is invited: 




O. W. STREETER. 
From a Photograph taken in 1857. 



INTRODUCTION 



A Few of the Many Unsolicited Notices of the 
Press from Different States. 



[From the West Superior (Wis.) Wave, October 12, 1893.] 

HON. O. W. STREETER. 

One of the Pioneers of Northwestern Civilization — 
His Early History — Lawyer, Statesman and Soldier 
— Always a Friend of the Oppressed. 

One of the first American settlers and attorneys of Wisconsin 
and Minnesota is now located in the city of Superior. 

There is not a man living at this time better acquainted with 
the early history of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and 
the land of the Dakotas than O. W„ Streeter, and knowing 
that many of his wide circle of old friends and acquaintances, 
many of whom are still living, would be pleased to see a sketch 
of this gentleman's past history and the valuable public ser- 
vices he rendered in those early days, we give below an out- 
line, obtained from various sources, of his public life : 

It was in 1836, when only a boy, that O. W. Streeter came 
to the far West, without money, friends or acquaintances, mak- 
ing his first stop at Galena, 111., where he remained for several 
years, dividing his time between Galena, Jo Daviess County, 
111., and the Beetown Mines in Grant County, in the Territory 
of Wisconsin, where he made sufficient money during half the 
year to enable him to continue the study of the law the re- 
mainder, and in this way he secured a thorough knowledge of 
the law. 

Subsequently he removed to Beetown, Grant County, in the 
Territory of Wisconsin, where in 1847 1^^ made an active can- 
vass for Moses M. Strong for delegate to aid in framing a con- 



1 8 INTRODUCTION 

stitution for Wisconsin. The first constitution was defeated by 
the people, and in the second election for delegates Mr. Strong 
was defeated. 

In 1848 Mr. Streeter made a thorough canvass for Nelson 
Dewey, of the firm of Dewey & Barber, attorneys, Lancaster, 
Grant County, Wis., for governor. 

In 1852 he crossed the Mississippi the fourth time, landing 
in Iowa, but remained only a short time, when he came and 
located at Wild Cat Bluff, Minn. The year previous to his 
arrival he was admitted to practise law, and was, without doubt, 
the first practising lawyer in this section. In 1853 he received 
his appointment ae inspector of election from Governor Gor- 
man. In 1857 he was elected a member of the constitutional 
convention of Minnesota, and the following year he received 
the election of senator to the State Legislature. The same year 
he was admitted to practise at the bar of the Supreme Court. 
In i860 he was appointed by President Buchanan as special 
census agent of the Government for all the unorganized terri- 
tory belonging to the United States. 

From the Preston Democrat^ the editor of which paper was 
an early acquaintance of Mr. Streeter, we take the following: 

In May, 1854, the United States Land Office for the Root 
River District was located at Brownsville — John H. McKenney 
was appointed receiver and John R. Bennett register. Under 
the land system ninety days was given by proclamation of the 
President for settlers to come forward, prove up and pay for 
their land, otherwise said land would be offered and sold to the 
highest bidder. Under these instructions the register and re- 
ceiver were authorized to employ a salesman. O. W. Streeter 
was selected to sell the land and accepted the position with the 
express understanding that he be allowed to favor the settlers 
who had no money to pay for their homes, but could hire it if 
the land was struck off to them at the minimum price of $1.25 
per acre. On the first day of the sale the town was crowded 
with settlers, including three or four hundred land sharks, who 
were there to bid off settlers' homes. But Mr. Streeter, who 



INTRODUCTION I 9 

was thoroughly acquainted with the settlers and their claims, 
refused to recognize speculators' bids, and in every instance 
struck off the land to the party who had made improvements 
and living upon it. This so enraged the disappointed sharks 
that they openly threatened to put Mr. Streeter into the river, 
but their plans were discovered by the settlers whose interests 
Mr. Streeter was defending, and the sharks were driven from 
the town ; some took to the hills and others to their boats. 

We next find Mr. Streeter a member of the constitutional 
convention, duly elected by the Democrats of Houston County. 
In that capacity he distinguished himself in his unyielding 
efforts to defeat the clans that conferred the power upon the 
legislature to inaugurate a rotten banking system, and strongly 
favoring the sale of a portion of the school land, that the chil- 
dren might receive some benefit from the school fund. This 
proposition was strongly opposed, but was carried, as may be 
seen by reference to the printed debates. 

[From the Caledonia (Minn.) Joiirnal.\ 

ONE OF THE PIONEERS. 

A call from Hon. O. W. Streeter, of Caledonia, Houston 
County, this State, recalls many important incidents connected 
with the early history of Minnesota. Mr. Streeter was one of 
the earliest settlers of the upper Mississippi River, and after 
taking an active part in the canvass for the first governor of 
Wisconsin in 1848, crossed the river to Northern Iowa and 
from thence to Brownsville, Minn., in 1852 ; he suggested the 
name of Houston for the county (where he still lives), in honor 
of Samuel Houston, of Texas, which was adopted by the Board 
of County Commissioners. 

Our old friend vigorously wielded the cudgel as a member 
of senate in the first legislature of the State, where his first 
effort was to secure the election of Gen. James Shields to the 
U. S. Senate. Next he began a searching investigation of the 
acts of the extra session of the Territorial Legislature, con- 
vened by the governor for the express purpose of making a 



20 INTRODUCTION 

distribution of the lands granted by Congress to the Territory, 
or State, of Minnesota to aid in the construction of certain 
railroads thereon named ; notwithstanding the members elect 
were not elected upon the railroad question, as the grant was 
not made when the members that were convened in extra 
session were elected — although two-thirds of said members 
were members of the incorporated companies to whom the 
grant was made and were, therefore, personally interested and 
entirely unfitted to make the distribution in the interests of the 
people. Notwithstanding they made the distribution in their 
own interest, leaving the State and the people without any 
security, leaving the companies free to sell 120 sections on the 
line before building a rod of road, pocket the money and then 
refuse to comply with the conditions of the Act of Congress, 
and allow the grant to revert to the Government, In this 
shaky condition of things, and with a view of bringing the grant 
again within the jurisdiction of the State, Mr. Streeter intro- 
duced a joint resolution, as the record shows, declaring " the 
distribution by the extra session of the Territorial Legislature 
illegal and void on the ground that there was no unexpended 
balance of the appropriation made by Congress to defray the 
expense of an extra session" — hence the governor was not 
authorized to call an extra session in open violation of two 
Acts of Congress, which provided that " a Territorial governor 
may convene the legislature, although the appropriation made 
by Congress has been exhausted, when the Territory is in- 
vaded," and in one or two other instances therein named. 
The joint resolution of Streeter was voted down, whereupon 
Mr. Streeter gave notice that he would introduce a proposition 
to amend the constitution to enable the State to loan her credit 
to the amount of $5,000,000, to aid in the construction of the 
roads designated by Congress. 

We next find Mr. Streeter battling for the rights and inter- 
ests of the poor as the originator and supporter of the Home- 
stead Exemption Bill, introduced in the senate, and which 



INTRODUCTION 21 

became a law after a desperate struggle against the combined 
capital of the State. Streeter not only originated and defended 
the bill for six weeks in committee of the whole, but he followed 
it, step by step, from the senate to the house and from the 
senate and house to the governor. On the same evening after 
the bill had received the signature of the governor, Mr. Streeter 
was serenaded by hundreds of mechanics and others interested 
in the passage of the bill. 

In ,1854 he was tendered by the Government the position of 
one of the Territorial judges, but would not exchange his land 
practice for it. 

He was with his friend General Shields in the Army of the 
Potomac ; was at the battle of Winchester, after which he 
remained in the tented field until General Shields resigned, 

(From the United States Democrat, of Washington, D. C, April 25, 1S85.] 

AUTHOR OF THE HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION ACT. 

A subscriber in St. Paul asks who was the author of the 
homestead exemption. In 1857, O, W. Streeter was a mem- 
ber of the' constitutional convention of that State, duly elected 
by the Democrats, Such was the breadth and depth of his 
wisdom and work that he was subsequently elected State 
senator. While a member of this body he conceived and 
drew the bill, and got Senator Hull to introduce it, so that it 
would have a mover and supporter of it at once on the floor. 
It was opposed by every capitalist and every lawyer in the 
State, but was passed and became a law; one of the best in 
that State, Till its passage a sheriff could sell even the shirt 
from a baby if needed to satisfy the claim of a debtor or 
usurer. 

The law exempted from forced sale eighty acres of land to 
every family or a home and lot in a city or village, regardless 
of valuation, and placed it beyond litigation so far as related to 
debts contracted subsequent to the passage of the act. It also 
provided that no mortgage or incumbrance could be placed on 
a farm or home without the consent of the wife, and in case of 



2 2 INTRODUCTION 

the death of the parents the property descended in like condi- 
tion and preservation to the children. 

During the passage of the bill and the desperate fight over 
it, we remember that Streeter was abused as a crank, robber 
and repudiator, but he carried the bill through, was sere- 
naded by the mechanics of St. Paul, and it proved an inestima- 
ble blessing to every home owner in Minnesota, and a positive 
strengthener of credit as well. It has stood the test of law 
and public sentiment more than a quarter of a century, and no 
man in Minnesota would vote for its repeal. 

I From the Chamberlain (S. D.) Democrai.'] 

We recollect the fight that was had over that same homestead 
bill. For in our Ohio home resounded the war of contending 
forces away up in the Northwest in the young State of Minne- 
sota, when Streeter, leading in the cause of the laboring 
masses, brought that memorable contest to a successful 
issue. No man is more deserving of the lasting gratitude of 
the people of that State than O. W. Streeter, whose wise and 
patriotic statesmanship is boldly impressed upon her early leg- 
islation. If we lived in his bailiwick we should nail to our 
masthead the name of Hon. O. W. Streeter as our candidate 
for governor at the very next election. 

iFromthe Rapid City (S. D.) Times.'] 

AN OLD TIMER. 

Among visitors to the Times office yesterday was a gentle- 
man whose appearance suggested that his age might be some- 
thing over fifty years, though after a reporter had some con- 
versation with him he casually mentioned that he was something 
beyond sixty-three. He was a corpulent gentleman, well pre- 
served, and though it was evident that he had but just arrived, 
it was plain to be seen that he was no pilgrim from the far 
East. The opinion to this effect hastily formed by the re- 
porter was entirely correct. Our visitor, far from being a ten- 
derfoot, was probably one of the first white men who ever set 



INTRODUCTION 23 

foot in the Black Hills country. In reply to a query as to 
whether this was his first visit to the hills he quietly said : 
" No, young man, it is not my first visit to this region, though 
when I was last here there was no sign of human habitation 
where now stands your handsome little city. I have not been 
here before for a trifle over 

A QUARTER OF A CENTURY." 

It is needless to say the reporter was somewhat astonished, 
but the demeanor of the visitor who made so surprising a 
declaration was such as to convince of his earnestness, and, 
believing that a man who had been in this region at so early a 
day would be able to tell some things of interest, the visitor 
was asked for such information, and with the request he cheer- 
fully complied. 

In the first place, his name is O. W. Streeter, a name once 
familiar throughout the Northwest. He was an early settler in 
Wisconsin and took part in the canvass for delegates to the con- 
vention which framed the constitution under which that Terri- 
tory was admitted. He was also a pioneer of Minnesota, and 
assisted in framing the constitution for that State, and was a 
member of the first State Senate. In i860 he was commissioned 
by President Buchanan as special Government agent for the en- 
tire northwestern unorganized territory, including Dakota, 
Montana and Idaho, This office was created by a special Act 
of Congress in 1850, but no appropriation was ever made for its 
expenses. In i860, after having been commissioned, Mr. 
Streeter fitted out a party and placed it under charge of Joseph 
Roulette, one of the best-known men in the Northwest and one 
of the best interpreters of that day. This outfit passed through 
the northern portion of Dakota as far west as Montana, into 
the Blackfoot country, and returned the same year. Some 
trouble was feared from the Indian tribes through whose coun- 
try the outfit passed, but Roulette's knowledge of the Indians 
and their language averted any serious collision. A pretty 
thorough investigation of the country through which the route 



24 INTRODUCTION 

lay was made, and a report was transmitted through Streeter to 
the Interior Department. Shortly after having outfitted this 
party, and in the same year, Mr, Streeter equipped a second, of 
which he himself took charge, and starting from Sioux City, 
crossed the country 

TO THE BLACK HILLS, 

in the foothills of which the party camped for some time, go- 
ir]g thence northward into Montana. The expedition did not 
return to the starting point until the spring of 1861. The early 
settlers of the Black Hills who remember the dangers, hard- 
ships and difficulties encountered in reaching this country ten 
or eleven years ago will readily understand something of the 
obstacles which lay in the way of these first exploring parties. 
Though Mr. Streeter's office was created by Congress, there was, 
as stated, no provision made for its expenses, and the outfits 
were paid for out of his own pocket, with the expectation that 
he would be reimbursed. As a matter of fact, however, the bill 
of expenses was not settled by congressional action until the 
closing session of the Forty-eighth Congress, when Mr. Street- 
er's bill was allowed with interest. The interest was cut down 
by Secretary Lamar to five per cent, before he would pass upon 
the matter, and Mr, Streeter accepted and will receive his 
money. 

TROUBLE WITH INDIANS. 

Mr. Streeter states that while in the vicinity of the hills he 
was continually harrassed by the Indians. No military escort 
was provided, so that the members of the party were at once 
explorers, sentries and soldiers. In mentioning the Indians 
Mr. Streeter went on to speak of the Minnesota massacre, with 
the scenes and incidents of which he is entirely familiar, and 
from that proceeded to express his opinion of the Indian ques- 
tion and the policy of the Government in its dealings with the 
Indians. He spoke somewhat bitterly of the influence of East- 
ern people in hindering the punishment of the Indians when 
they deserve punishment, and of the inefficiency of the regular 



INTRODUCTION 25 

army soldiers in frontier fighting. He told of the Apache 
troubles in Arizona, where he also spent some years, and says 
if it were possible for the Government to learn the fallacy of its 
Indian policy it should have been learned in Arizona years ago. 
Like many old Western men who have dug graves for the burial 
of friends murdered by the Indians, he is inclined to believe 
that there is but one way to make an Indian good, and that is 
the plan which was worked so successfully years ago by Gen- 
eral Harney. 

THE OBJECT OF HIS VISIT. 

Mr. Streeter, in telling of the object of his present visit to 
the hills, said : "In the first place, I want to see my old friend 
John LaFabre, who is now receiver at Deadwood, Then again 
I have long had a desire to revisit the scenes which impressed 
themselves forcibly upon my mind a quarter of a century ago. 
Wild as the country then was, its beauties have lingered in my 
mind and I wanted to come back to see if I could find any land- 
marks which I would recollect. I remember this stream (Rapid 
Creek) distinctly, but settlement seems to have changed the 
face of the country. I have traveled all over the United States 
and Mexico, and I have never found a climate which I liked as 
well as that experienced by me in the Black Hills region twen- 
ty-six years ago. I am an old man, and have a family and 
home in Minnesota, but expect to loiter hereabouts for a time, 
and possibly if I find the country what my more youthful fancy 
painted it, I may centre my interests here and spend my de- 
clining years with my wife and children under my own vine and 
fig tree in the Black Hills." 

[From the Superior IVave, July i, 1900.] 

STINSON WINS. 

A decision in favor of the defendant has been given by Judge 
Bunn in the Federal Court in the case of the Government 
against James Stinson, of Chicago, involving the title to 2,200 
acres of land lying within the city limits of Superior, and worth 
at a low estimate a quarter of a million dollars. 



26 / INTRODUCTION 

The Government claimed that Stinson, who was part owner of 
the town-site, hired a number of Swedes ostensibly to work on 
the street at thirty dollars per month, but whose real duty was to 
pre-empt the land in controversy, title to which they transferred 
to him. Judge Bunn decided that there was no fraud and that 
Stinson's title is valid. All the lands are now under a receiver- 
ship, Michael S. Bright, of Superior, being receiver. 

The case was argued several weeks ago by Spooner and San- 
born for Stinson, and D. A. Jones and John H. Simmons, of 
Racine, for the Government, An appeal may be taken by the 
Government to the United States Court of Appeals, and it is 
not improbable that it will finally go to the United States Su- 
preme Court. Judge O. W. Streeter was one of the attorneys 
for Mr. Stinson, and no doubt feels much elated over the out- 
come. The judge has put in many an hour of hard work on 
this case. 

[From the Duluth Daily Shorilitie.l 

JUDGE O. W. STREETER. 

There are but few men in the world who make history, and 
all of them have been at some time or another leaders of men 
and the creators of conditions or incidents. The Northwest is 
yet young from an historical point of view, still there are few 
living men, comparatively, whose names are prominently asso- 
ciated with the early story of this section's settlement and de- 
velopment. The figure of Judge O. W. Streeter is a conspicu- 
ous one on the streets of West Superior. His dignified and 
judicial bearing, his professional attire, the big stick worn with 
the intimacy of years, and his striking personal appearance 
make the judge a distinguished man. And so he is, and any 
man who took an active and effective part in the early struggles 
of the Territories of Wisconsin and the now great State of 
Minnesota is a distinguished man. As a matter of fact, but 
little is known of Judge Streeter at the head of the Lakes. His 
years have been devoted to his profession in a quiet and unob- 
trusive way. He is averse to making new acquaintances or 



INTRODUCTION 2'] 

indulging indiscriminatingly in the relation of his interesting 
reminiscences. There is, however, no jnan residing at the 
head of the Lakes who figured so prominently in the early 
political history of the West. 

Judge Streeter began the study of law in the village of 
Galena, 111. Galena then was on the border of Western civili- 
zation, and young Streeter's time was divided between hard 
manual labor and the reading of law books. He persevered, 
and in time was admitted to the bar, and soon was recognized 
as a brilliant and practical young attorney. In 1848 he com- 
menced his political career by stumping the State of Wisconsin 
in the interests of his friend. Nelson Dewey, who was a candi- 
date for the State of Wisconsin's first governorship. His can- 
vass was largely instrumental in electing Governor Dewey. 

Judge Streeter, having acquired much prominence in Wis- 
consin, moved to the Territory of Minnesota, where his position 
as an able lawyer and influential politician was soon established. 
In 1857 was held the first constitutional convention in St. Paul, 
then the capital of the Territory. It is conceded that in that 
convention was gathered more notable characters than had 
ever before or have been since assembled in the Northwest, 
and among them there was no man who attracted more atten- 
tion or won more respectful admiration than O. W. Streeter. 
The following year, 1858, he was elected to the State Senate 
from Houston County, and took an enviable place in the ranks 
of the young State's legislators. 

During his term in the senate Judge Streeter formulated and 
successfully urged the passage of the Exemption Land Law. 
It required a stubborn battle, lasting more than six weeks, to 
carry the measure, but in the end its originator secured its 
passage and it became and has ever since remained a law. 
Thousands of wives and children owe their homes to the fore- 
sight and wisdom of the man who so bravely protected their 
moral, and furthered their legal, rights. Directly after the 
Land Exemption Bill became a statute of Minnesota law, 
Judge Streeter was made the recipient of a testimonial of 



28 INTRODUCTION 

unique and sincere character. At that time he occupied Room 
48 in the old American Hotel in St. Paul. While absent one 
day a delegation, appointed by a large number of citizens, 
visited his room and literally filled it with evidences of their 
esteem in the shape of cigars, fine wines, fruits and delicacies 
of almost every description. Pioneers of Minnesota will rec- 
ognize the appropriateness of those very pleasant and welcome 
gifts. Prior to Judge Streeter's election to the State Senate, 
during the late General Sibley's term as first governor of Min- 
nesota, he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court, 
and was one of the first lawyers in the State to whom the privi- 
lege was granted. 

President Buchanan, desiring to gratify the wishes of the 
majority of Western men, and realizing the capacity and ster- 
ling worth of Judge Streeter, appointed him special agent of 
the Government of all the unorganized Territorial lands in the 
United States. The subject of this sketch was instrumental in 
bringing about the efficiency of the early land offices in 
southern Minnesota, Judge Streeter is still an active man, 
mentally and physically. His practice at the bar still demands 
a great deal of his attention. It is the sincere wish of thou- 
sands of his friends that Judge Streeter may be spared to them 
and to Wisconsin for many years to come. 

[From the Superior Leader.] 

D. G. MORRISON'S CLAIM. 

It may not be generally known that there is a claimant for 
the Sweetzer tract of land in the person of D. G. Morrison, 
who claims that he made a pre-emption entry of the land in 
1854, and that the Sweetzer title, held under the Campbell 
entry, was made with half-breed scrip in 1859. 

The land in question is Lots i and 2 sw 1-4 of the ne 1-4 of 
Sec. 14, T. 49, R. 14, better known as the Sweetzer claim, and 
over which there has been a great deal of litigation. It con- 
tains a little over one hundred and thirteen acres exclusive of 
the water front on the bay, is located in the very heart of the 



INTRODUCTION 29 

city and is considered prospectively and otherwise to be very 
desirable property. 

For many years Morrison has made all the effort in his 
power to interest some attorney at the head of the Lakes, St. 
Paul, Madison and other places, to aid and assist him to 
recover the land included in this tract, which he claims he pre- 
empted and paid for in 1854, but the attorneys all told him 
that there was not a single point in his case that could be 
relied upon. 

These discouraging opinions from good attorneys and the 
lack of means to advance even a retainer compelled Morrison 
to remain silent and inactive until years passed by and until 
the case was submitted to O. W. Streeter, who made a search- 
ing examination of it and decided to take the case without a 
cash fee. He secured at once a certified copy of all the pro- 
ceedings had before the Land Department, with that and other 
papers, clearing the seal of the United States, and with the 
strength he had added to the material points in the case 
during the last two years he was enabled to complete a state- 
ment and brief which Morrison thinks shows conclusively that 
he is the equitable owner of the Sweetzer tract now claimed by 
the Land and River Improvement Company of West Superior,- 
and that the laws of Congress, decisions of the Interior De- 
partment, opinions of Attorney-General and decisions of the 
Supreme Court of the United States will support the Morrison 
title. 

The case made out by Streeter has been examined by some 
of the most distinguished lawyers of the United States, who 
give it as their opinion that if the case ever goes to trial he 
will win. 

It is claimed the transfer made to George S. Becker was by 
verbal agreement and understanding, made contingent upon 
the subsequent issue of the patent, hence the full consideration 
was never paid and for the obvious reason that the patent was 
never issued, and the land transferred will be reconveyed to 
Morrison. 



30 INTRODUCTION 

[Special to the Duluth Journal.'] 

UNSETTLING OLD TITLES. 

Duluth, February 19th. — The latest advices from Wash- 
ington drop like a pall upon the property adjacent to old and 
West Superior, known as the Stinson claim. The interior 
officers, in advance of promulgating their formal decision, said 
that the fourteen quarter sections of land, now worth about two 
million dollars, to which James Stinson twenty years ago claimed 
to have secured title, must revert to the Government because of 
pre-arranged fraud on the part of Stinson and fourteen Swedes 
in securing title. U. S. Attorney O. W. Streeter, in behalf of 
the Government, has been investigating the alleged frauds, 
and finds that Stinson employed Swedes to settle fourteen 
quarter sections, under a contract to relinquish to him the land 
after they had proved up on it. The affidavits of the Swedes 
have been secured that they had but just landed in America 
and accepted the contract because it looked like a soft job, for 
which they were fairly well paid. 

The first hearing of the case was held at Madison, but the 
presiding judge dismissed the bill on the ground that it should 
pass through the hands of the Attorney-General. Accordingly, 
Mr. Streeter went to Washington for the purpose of preparing 
a new bill, which was to bear the signature of the Attorney- 
General. He accomplished his work in spite of the opposition 
brought to bear by Stinson's representations, and the case will 
be tried by the United States Circuit Court at the next term 
either in LaCrosse, Madison, or Eau Claire. In the event of 
the case being against Stinson, his title to the property involved 
will return to the Interior Department, when the "squatters" 
will be entitled to prove up and receive right of possession to 
the property, they being the first to make improvements. 

CONFIDENT OF SUCCESS. 

West Superior, Wis., Special, August 3d. — Hon. O. W. 
Streeter, who, with Thomas Ewing, of Washington, is attorney 



INTRODUCTION 3 1 

for the Government in the famous Stinson land case, involving 
property in this city valued at two million dollars, is now very 
confident that the Government will score a signal victory. 
Colonel Streeter recently appeared before the Attorney-General 
by appointment, and, it is claimed, made a decided impression 
upon that gentleman by a full and convincing argument, setting 
forth the alleged fraudulent proceedings by which Mr. Stinson 
secured the acreage. The attorneys for the defence have been 
making strenuous efforts to have the case dismissed, and have 
submitted written arguments to the Attorney-General, besides 
having made an appeal in person. The Attorney-General has 
decided, however, that the case must go to hearing and decree, 
and has so advised the United States district attorney. The 
property is fourteen quarter sections of land which has suddenly 
become very valuable with the birth of West Superior. Each 
quarter section is occupied by a settler, who fondly hopes to 
strike it rich. It is claimed that Mr. Stinson went over into 
the Scandinavian settlements in Chisago County, Minn., and 
employed the settlers for thirty dollars a month to " hold down " 
the claims which now occasion so much trouble to the owner. 
The men were ignorant of the fact that they were committing a 
fraud, or were even party to one, if one was committed. After 
the form of proving up had been gone through the Scandina- 
vians departed for Chisago County, where, it is claimed, many 
are yet living, now prosperous farmers. Colonel Streeter feels 
confident that the proof will be overwhelming in case Mr. 
Stinson attempts to fight it out in court. Colonel Streeter is 
one of the most prominent Government attorneys in the country. 
He left to-night for the Black Hills, where he is interested in 
the Iron Hill mine. 

THE STINSON LAND CASE. 

The Duluth Daily Tribune of the 30th ult. contains a glow- 
ing tribute to our old friend and pioneer of this county, the 
Hon. O. W. Streeter, in his capacity as attorney for the Gov- 
ernment in the Stinson land case. The value of the lands 



32 INTRODUCTION 

involved in this case is estimated at two and one-half million 
dollars. The recent overruling of the defendant's demurrer in 
this case by Judges Gresham and Bunn exhausts the defend- 
ant's last resort to change or overthrow the verdict obtained 
some time ago in favor of that side of the case represented by 
Mr. Streeter. 

[From the Eve7ting Telegram, January i6, 1900.] 

FAMOUS STINSON CASE. 

Review of the Litigation Involving about Six Million 
Dollars' Worth of Lands within the City Limits — 
Case Has Been in the Courts for Many Years and 
There is Now a Prospect that it Will Come to 
Final Decision. 

The famous Stinson case will probably soon be disposed of. 
The case involves fourteen quarter sections of land, all within 
the city limits of Superior. The land is valued at about six 
million dollars. It includes the following lots and tracts : 
Northwest quarter of 1-48-14, northeast quarter of 4-48-13, 
northwest quarter of 4-48-13, northeast quarter of 5-48-13, north- 
west quarter of 26-49-14, southwest quarter of 28-49-14, north- 
west quarter of 33-49-14, southwest quarter of 35-49-14, northwest 
quarter of 35-49-14, northwest quarter of 5-48-13, northeast 
quarter of 6-48-13, lots 7-8-9 and northwest quarter of the 
northeast quarter of 1-48-14, northeast quarter of 2-48-14, lots 
1-2-3 of 1-48-14. All of this was proved up in 1854 and 1855 
under the Federal Pre-emption Law. 

The litigation has been an expensive one and the cost and 
fees will exceed one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The 
amount of the accrued taxes against this property is nearly two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and Douglas County is in- 
terested to this amount in having the case decided in favor of 
Stinson. 

At one time a number of "squatters " settled on the property, 
with the hope of securing rights to the land, if it should revert 
to the Government. But a subsequent act of Congress changed 



INTRODUCTION 33 

the situation in regard to the "squatters," If the Government 
secures the land now it will be sold at auction. 

As the case is of much interest locally, the Evening Telegram 
has secured a history of the proceedings from the beginning to 
the present day, from the judicial records and Executive Depart- 
ment of the Government. 

In 1887 William Newton brought the Stinson case to the 
notice of O. W. Streeter. The statement of Mr. Newton made 
a favorable impression and Streeter examined the entries of 
1854 and 1855 on file in the land office at Ashland. He next 
visited Center City, Chisago County, and secured the sworn 
statements of the Swedes and Norwegians who pre-empted ; re- 
turned to Superior and was preparing to start for Washington 
when he received a business message from friends in St. Paul, 
who had learned of his movements and desired to see him. 
The party with their attorney, Stevens, arrived at Superior, met 
Streeter, and with their attorney examined the case and wanted 
an interest in the result of the suit. Everything was arranged, 
money advanced in the case and different plans were suggested 
to secure the interest the company expected out of the transac- 
tion in the event that a decree was rendered in favor of the Gov- 
ernment. Streeter's plan was adopted and was to place build- 
ings on each section and put men in them who were in every 
way qualified to pre-empt and improve the claims ; then if a de- 
cree was rendered in favor of the Government, the rights of 
the parties in possession would attach almost momentarily and 
in preference to any other claimant, under the land laws, rules 
and regulations then in force. 

The city of Superior at that time and for years afterward had 
more land included in its corporation limits than was allowed 
by the various town-site acts of Congress, hence if a decree was 
rendered in favor of the United States the land would revert to 
the Government, and at that time be subject to the operation of 
the land laws of the United States. This explanation was en- 
tirely satisfactory to Stevens and the company he represented. 
Streeter was appointed attorney to take charge of the case and 



34 INTRODUCTION 

W. H. Newton was appointed to look after the interest of the 
claims and claimants under the advice of Streeter, 

After he had closed his business with the St. Paul company, 
and secured the required information he had gained from the 
records, Streeter proceeded to Washington and presented the 
case in person to the commissioner of the general land office 
March 14, 1888. After an examination of the petition and the 
records in his office, he gave a favorable decision and then pre- 
sented it to the Secretary of the Interior for further considera- 
tion. The secretary confirmed the action of the commissioner, 
and transferred the case to the Department of Justice with a 
recommendation that the Attorney-General bring suit to re- 
cover the lands entered through fraud. Attorney-General Gar- 
land, after an examination of the petition presented by Streeter 
and acted upon by the Interior Department, instructed Bush- 
nell, the attorney for the western district of Wisconsin in the 
seventh circuit, to begin suit to recover the said lands. Bush- 
nell drew up a complaint including all the material facts in 
Streeter's petition, the complaint was presented and objected 
to by W. C. Gowdy, the counsel for the defence, on the grounds 
that the Attorney-General's name was not affixed to the com- 
plaint. The objection was sustained by Judge Bunn, but time 
was granted by the court to obtain another complaint signed by 
the Attorney-General. 

Streeter started for Washington at once and arrived there in 
time to oppose the proposition of dismissal and secure the 
signature of the Attorney-General to a second complaint. This 
accomplished, Streeter returned, the complaint was filed and the 
action reinstated. Gowdy demurred to the complaint, but the 
demurrer was overruled and he filed his answer in January, 
1890. The Government followed with a replication, and the 
issue was joined, so that all that remained to be done in the 
case before the trial was to take the depositions. 

In the meantime the Harrison administration came into 
power, and Bushnell was succeeded by Mr. Harper as attorney 
for this district. Mr. Harper took charge of the office and the 



INTRODUCTION 35 

Stinson case. The Harper administration was a blank as far 
as the Stinson case was concerned. He made no moves in the 
case, which closed the doors on the interested parties, and the 
case was finally dismissed under his term of office owing to a 
lack of prosecution on the part of the Government. But it was 
reinstated. 

Mr. Gowdy died in May, 1893, when Spooner, Sanborn and 
Kerr came into the case with Streeter. Previous to his death 
and while attorney for James Stinson, he secured ex parte affi- 
davits and other evidence to show that the action brought by 
his client, James Stinson, was not a meritorious one on the 
part of the Government, but originated and was being prose- 
cuted in the interest of outside parties. These statements 
were presented and urged by Mr. Gowdy on the considera- 
tion of Attorney-General Miller in 1889, and arranged by 
Gowdy, of Chicago, and Wilson, of Washington, in June, 
1889. 

These ex parte proceedings were telegraphed to Streeter, who 
was in St. Paul at the time. On receipt of the news he noti- 
fied the Department of Justice to hold the case open until he 
could get there, as he wanted to be heard, and started for the 
capital city at once, which he reached in good time, and called 
on the Attorney-General at once. The time for a hearing was 
set on the following day. On his arrival he was met by Gen- 
eral Ewing, who had been telegraphed to meet him. The Gen- 
eral stated that he had had an interview with the Attorney- 
General and thought that Gowdy and Wilson had convinced 
him that the case ought to be dismissed and that Mr. Rogers, 
Deputy United States Attorney, had called on the Attorney- 
General, but had received no encouragement and was satisfied 
that the case would be dismissed on the following day. On 
the following day the hour for the hearing arrived, but as the 
General and Streeter could not agree on the course to be taken 
in the argument, Ewing took no part in the discussion, but 
was present. When Streeter closed his argument the Attor- 
ney-General informed him that he need not file a brief. Gen- 



36 INTRODUCTION 

eral Ewing after leaving the room remarked, "I think that you 
have changed the mind of the Attorney-General," as the fol- 
lowing letter from General Ewing to Hiram F. Stevens will 
show : 

"Washington, July 2, 1889. 
"By appointment Judge Streeter and I appeared before the 
Attorney-General to-day. He heard us at length, and we had 
a very satisfactory discussion of the case. Judge Streeter told 
the whole story of the Stinson case very effectually, making a 
very decided impression. The attorney seemed satisfied with 
the discussion and said that we need not file a brief and that he 
would settle the case in a few days. He sent for Wilson, who 
represents Stinson, but as Wilson was in court he could not 
come. Both Judge Streeter and myself think the Attorney- 
General will order the district attorney to proceed with the 
case. Very respectfully, 

" Thomas Ewing." 

ATTORNEY-GENERAL MILLER'S DECISION. 

" Washington, July 13, 1889. 
" Dear Sir : — I have concluded to let the Stinson case go to 
hearing and decree, and have so ordered the district attorney. 
"Yours truly, 

"W. H. Miller, Atty.-Gen." 

After Miller decided to prosecute the Stinson case to final 
judgment and decree, he issued his "iron-clad" letter instruct- 
ing all United States attorneys that they must attend to all 
matters wherein the United States is a party to the exclusion 
of all outside attorneys. This virtually excluded all outside 
attorneys, including Streeter, who had protected the interest of 
the Government while protecting the interest of his clients, and 
who on two occasions had prevented the dismissal of the case 
by the Attorney-General. But Streeter never was employed by 
the Government in the Stinson case, and was not even thanked 
for saving the case on two separate occasions, and was never 
placed under any obligations to the Government in the Stinson 



INTRODUCTION 37 

case, or any other party, except the St. Paul company that em- 
ployed him in the case, and the inexcusable neglect of the Gov- 
ernment only marked the Stinson case for destiny. 

Miller's "iron-clad" letter was followed by the death of 
W. H. Newton, who was chosen by the company to attend the 
wants of those occupying the claims. Soon after, one of the 
St. Paul firm that employed Streeter died. This unfortunate 
condition of things, together with the "iron-clad" letter, caused 
the St. Paul firm to withdraw from the field, and, there having 
been no judgment or decree placing the land in controversy 
within the jurisdiction of the Land Department, Streeter was 
free from any obligations to any party on earth in the Stinson 
case until employed to assist Gowdy, in which Streeter urged 
that Stinson's tax title be used as a defence, and at Gowdy's 
request made a brief that will be used by Spooner and Sanborn, 
his associates in the case now on trial. 

Nothing further of importance has been done in the Stinson 
case since it was dismissed in 1894 on motion before Judge 
Bunn for want of prosecution, but was reinstated soon after. 

The records in the Stinson case show that on December 20, 
1893, the defendant moved the court to dismiss the bill of com- 
plaint for want of prosecution on the part of the complainants, 
and that on the twenty-fourth day of February, 1894, the said 
bill was dismissed by the court for want of prosecution by the 
complainants, and the injunction vacated and dissolved. That 
on the fifteenth day of September, 1894, the complainants 
appealed to the court for an order from the court vacating the 
order of February 24, 1894, dismissing the bill and vacating the 
injunction, and that the same was heard by the court June 2, 
1895, and denied January 5, i8g6. That on February 25, 1896, 
complainants filed their bill of complaint, being this suit, set- 
tling up substantially the matters stated in the first and second 
bills and affecting the same lands, except the legal subdivision 
of the Stinson lands upon which Itasca is located, which was, 
through mistake or otherwise, omitted and not included in the 
case now on trial. 



38 INTRODUCTION 

[From Superior JVave.'] 

Hon. O. W. Streeter is about to publish his great poem, 
"A Dream of Life in Other Worlds, with God in Everything." 
The poem will be preceded by a history of the homeless boy, 
and followed by a number of choice verses from the judge's 
able pen, some of them having been written in the Forties. 
Able critics have passed on " A Dream of Life," and have 
pronounced it the finest thing ever written. The book will 
have a very large sale in the Northwest, where Judge Streeter 
is so well known, and where he has many friends. 

With these unsolicited compHments of the press, 
we pass with our recollections of the upper Mis- 
sissippi River, its islands and shores as they looked 
in 1836, and how they look now. And having 
followed the meandering footsteps of the boy 
through many changes, we now turn back to 
review a part of the old familiar trail and note the 
footprints time has made since 1836. 

Galena is situated on Fevre River, six or seven 
miles above its confluence with the Mississippi, and 
which is no longer navigable to Galena, for the 
reason that the volume of water in the Mississippi 
has decreased more than one-third in the last half 
century, to the personal knowledge of the writer; 
and years ago the once busy little city of Galena 
was notified by the Father of Rivers that backwater 
would no longer furnish navigation for it. This 
brought Dubuque, her ancient rival, to the front, 
a position she kept and still holds. 

Dubuque is a little north and west of Galena, on 
the west bank of the Mississippi River, and is the 



INTRODUCTION 39 

oldest town in the State of Iowa. It was settled 
by the French and named after the first claimant 
(a Frenchman named Dubuque), whose body, after 
his death, was placed in a stone vault, above the 
ground, on the highest and most romantic bluff 
which overlooks the city and the Mississippi, and 
can be seen for miles up and down the river. 

In 1836 Galena and Dubuque were both small 
trading-points, but subsequently became the most 
important business towns of the upper Mississippi 
River. 

Prairie du Chien, or Fort Crawford, was the next 
and only town above Galena and Dubuque of any 
great importance in those early days. It is one of 
the oldest towns in the State of Wisconsin, and its 
settlement by the French dates as far back as that 
of St. Louis. It had quite a dusky population 
outside of those in charge of the fort ; and a 
family of full-blooded Yankees would have been as 
great a curiosity to the natives, half-breeds and 
Frenchmen of Prairie du Chien and vicinity as the 
Indian chief Black Hawk was to the people of the 
East, after the battle of Bad Ax — where two old 
squaws were engaged and one was killed, while the 
other ducked and escaped by paddling her own 
canoe to the other shore. Bad Ax River empties 
into the Mississippi River on the Wisconsin side, 
nearly opposite to Wild Cat Bluff, where the old 
squaw landed at her wigwam in safety. 

There were no settlements back on the prairies 



40 INTRODUCTION 

at that time, and only here and there a wood-chop- 
per's camp to be seen along the river ; and our sup- 
plies had to be shipped from St. Louis to Galena 
and Dubuque, and from there, on flat boats, to 
Prairie du Chien, or Fort Crawford, for no steamers 
ran above Dubuque and a land route at that time 
was impracticable, and flat boats were the only 
means of transportation. These boats were poled 
up the river until freight was delivered, then 
pushed into the river and floated down it. It took 
at least ten men to run one of these — three on 
each side with setting poles, one to steer, and three 
on shore with a rope, when they could follow the 
shore, and when they could not use the rope to 
advantage they would go on board and paddle. 
The flat-boat line was continued until after the 
soldiers were moved to Fort Snelling. 

Fort Snelling is located between the Mississippi 
and Minnesota Rivers, just above the junction, and 
between St. Paul and Minneapolis, which have 
since been built. 

This important event and the facts that rich 
mines were being struck and worked in the lead- 
mining district, and that immigration had com- 
menced, gave life to business, and stimulated the 
Harris boys (who subsequently became the great 
steamboat men of the upper Mississippi River) to 
put on a small boat between Galena and Fort 
Snelling. A small craft was fitted up and, with a 
small freight, started out on her first trip. When- 



INTRODUCTION 4I 

ever she made a landing, especially at the wood- 
chopper's camps, the little boat was greeted as the 
messenger of peace and plenty. Cheer after cheer 
greeted the little boat as she passed up the river on 
her first trip; for those who had so long worked at 
a disadvantage felt relieved with the prospect of 
better times. They could now ship their wood in 
flat boats, to be towed down by the little steamer, 
while the home demands for the steamer's supply 
would be good ; they would no more have to raft 
their wood with the risk of getting wrecked before 
finding a market below. That could be done, but 
there had been no reliable way of getting their 
supplies from Galena up the river to their camps 
until this steamer began her trips. 

Next, the little boat was making her regular trips, 
and the trade was increasing so rapidly that a 
larger boat became necessary to do the business. 
The Harris boys realized the situation, and at once 
contracted for the building of a larger boat, to run 
from Galena to Fort Snelling, which boat they 
named the Otter. This steamer continued in the 
trade for years and long after larger steamers were 
running in the line to St. Paul. 

Mr. Streeter will never forget his first trip from 
Galena to Fort Snelling, on the steamer Otter ; and, 
while there were many interesting, well remembered 
incidents connected with it, there is one not to be 
overlooked, — that the boat was loaded, exclusively 
with whiskey and tobacco for Fort Snelling. 



42 INTRODUCTION 

About that same year, or during one of the cold- 
est beginnings of one of the mildest winters ever 
experienced in the Northwest or known in its his- 
tory, occurred incidents which deserve a prominent 
place — to show how the hand of Providence can 
relieve and protect the oppressed. During the last 
of November of the winter referred to, the St. Louis 
boats, loaded with provisions for Galena, to feed the 
people of the Northwest, were frozen in, compelling 
the abandonment of their trips, which left all the 
surplus of flour and provisions in Galena in the 
hands of one Frenchman, who refused to sell his 
flour for less than forty cents a pound, and starva- 
tion stared the people in the face. The miners and 
citizens held a meeting and appointed a committee 
to wait on the Frenchman, present the hopeless, 
dependent condition of the people, and ask him in 
the name of humanity to lower his prices and open 
his doors to the poor and hungry ; but he positively 
refused their bequest. Another meeting, a secret 
one, was held behind closed doors, by which meet- 
ing it was resolved that there was only one course 
left for the people to pursue and that was to force 
open the Frenchman's warehouse, if necessary, and 
feed the poor and hungry. This was in the winter 
of 1840, if memory serves right; if not, it was one 
among the Forties; and the month of November, 
that year, was the coldest month of the winter. 

When hope of supplies for the winter had been 
abandoned, while miners and citizens were seriously 



INTRODUCTION 43 

considering their unfortunate condition, the weather 
changed and became suddenly warm, with a wind 
blowing from the south, which continued for several 
days, until the ice w^as all broken up in Fevre River, 
and the Mississippi w^as reported clear from Galena 
to New Orleans — in the month of January — 
something never heard of before in the history of 
the great Father of Rivers. While anxious souls 
were gazing upon the open water with wonder, a 
steamboat whistle was heard from below, and for a 
moment all remained silent, for they were still in 
doubt until the second whistle came, louder than 
the first and echoing from bluff to bluff. Then an 
immense shout of joy filled the air. In a few min- 
utes more one of the large lower-river steamers 
could be seen rounding Pilot Knob, and now in 
plain view. Every eye was fixed upon her as she 
neared the landinor, loaded to the s^uards. What 
could her cargo be, was the question with all, while 
hurriedly the lines were made fast; and when the 
gangplank reached the shore a rush was made for 
the office, whence the welcome news, like an electric 
flash, spread to every wood-chopper's paradise and 
miner's camp in the district, " The boat is loaded 
with flour ! " and the hills echoed the joyful news. 

About this time the old Frenchman, who had 
been dreaming of a fortune he was to make out of 
his flour, heard the startling news of the arrival of 
the steamer loaded with flour, and hurried down to 
the landing to learn the facts; and when he saw 



44 INTRODUCTION 

the crew unloading flour, he turned and exclaimed, 
" Hell ! suppose steamboat come up in middle of 
wint' ! " The boat's freight was discharged and she 
returned to St. Louis. The flour was placed on 
the market at a reasonable price and, with peace 
and plenty, everybody smiled and a day of thanks- 
giving was had, for all believed it was a special act 
of Providence which gave them bread. 

With a plenty of flour there was an abundance to 
eat, for the shores both sides of the Mississippi 
were thronged with game ; the river was full of fish ; 
the mouths of the spring brooks were open this 
winter and held flocks of ducks ; the forests and 
groves furnished pheasants and quails ; the barrens 
and prairies had chickens and grouse ; the brooks 
were alive with speckled trout, and deer were 
numerous everywhere; the streams, groves and 
prairies west of the great river were the home of 
elk and buffalo, and Nature had provided for all. 
Wild hogs were also plenty on many of the islands 
in the river, and one of the largest of hog-camps 
along the upper Mississippi was at the mouth of 
Turkey River, in Iowa, directly opposite Cassville, 
in Wisconsin. At this point the bottom-land of 
the two rivers was an extensive region, well adapted 
to the raising of hogs. It produced an immense 
crop of artichokes annually, and all the country 
about was covered with mast-producing trees. It 
was a paradise of hunters, who always sought this 
favored spot to get their winter supplies of pork. 



INTRODUCTION 45 

This recalls to mind a trip made to Turkey River 
in November, 1846. There were four in the party 
— the Barningham brothers, Whitmore, the natural 
comedian, and O, W. Streeter, the once homeless 
boy. The outfit for the party included an old sor- 
rel mare, a small sack of flour, a sack of oats and 
sack of salt, a small piece of salt meat, four tin 
plates, a small bucket for teapot and a larger one 
to cook in, blankets, tobacco, matches, guns and 
ammunition. With this outfit they packed the old 
mare and started for Cassville, on the river, which 
they reached about 3 p. m. Two Frenchmen, the 
only inhabitants of the town, looked as if they might 
have lived there ever since Christopher Columbus 
discovered America. Each filled an important po- 
sition; one had charge of the ferry-boat, the other 
kept watch over a barrel of red-head whiskey. The 
'members of the party fed the old mare, refreshed 
themselves and got everything on board the flat- 
boat ferry, when Whitmore refused to cross without 
a jug of whiskey. So all " chipped in," and Whit- 
more brought on board a four-gallon jug, filled with 
red-head whiskey. Then the flat was poled out, 
towed up the Wisconsin side about half a mile and 
dropped into the current, with the aid of paddles, 
striking the Iowa side a little below the mouth of 
Turkey River about 5 p. m. Here " truck " was 
put ashore and two of the party started out to find 
a suitable camp. 

The boys located camp at the foot of the hills. 



46 INTRODUCTION 

about two hundred and fifty feet above the bottom- 
land, under a shelving rock on the side-hill, where, 
after fixinor a wagrwam for the old mare at the bot- 
tom of the hill, eveiything else was packed up the 
deep-worn trail to the shelter of the shelving rock 
— everything except the four-gallon jug of red-head 
w^iiskey, which Whitmore had charge of, and that 
he finally succeeded in getting into camp. It was 
now night and a cold lunch was eaten ; blankets 
were spread under the shelving rock, which shel- 
tered heads and shoulders but left the feet to the 
weather; a small camp-fire was lit; all smoked and 
sang songs; Whitmore made a speech, and then 
each took a drink of red-head whiskey and went to 
bed. g 

About daylight the party woke up and found 
that over a foot of snow had fallen, covering all 
but their heads and shoulders. Whitmore was 
already out and, with the jug elevated upon a 
rock, was making a speech about the " beautiful 
snow," and, with the cork out, was about to take a 
second drink, when, with a finishing flash of 
eloquence and flourish of hands, he moved the jug 
from its foundation and it started down the hill, a 
distance of two hundred and fifty feet, with stopple 
out and Whitmore after it. It was a rough and 
tumble race, but the jug kept a little ahead. The 
old mare, at the bottom, heard Whit, and the jug 
coming and made her escape. After Whit, and the 
jug had landed at the bottom he began to examine 



INTRODUCTION 47 

things around him to see how much damage had 
been done. He found his face and hands barked a 
Httle, his clothing the worse for wear, the jug all 
right, but the whiskey gone. This last was dry for 
Whit, who started at once for camp, described his 
rough and tumble race down the bluff and asked 
the boys what he should do. They told him that 
he ought to take the old mare and the jug, go to 
the ferry landing, signal the Frenchman to come 
over, and have the jug refilled and bring it back to 
camp. It was but a short time until Whitmore, 
with the old mare and the jug of red-head whiskey, 
put in an appearance. Breakfast was ready ; Whit- 
more made a speech, and then all took a drink and 
ate breakfast. 

It was then late and the party started for the 
hunting ground on the bottom, for all wanted fresh 
pork. There was a good tracking snow and the old 
dog soon found a camp of wild hogs. The guar- 
dians of the pigs all took after the dog and the pigs 
followed. Some of the old ones had tusks like 
elephants, and it was nip and tuck between the dog 
and the hogs in the race, though wdien they passed 
in sight of the hunters these thought the dog was a 
little ahead. The pigs came so close that Barning- 
ham shot one. It was fat and weighed about one 
hundred pounds. It was carried to camp and 
dressed and Barningham soon had a fine lot of it in 
the camp kettle. He seasoned it as he usually did 
fresh meat, but this being fattened on mast and ar- 



48 INTRODUCTION 

tichokes, was oily and required more. Before the 
stew was done the cook filled the kettle with dump- 
lings. Soon the stew was complete and ready for 
use as soon as the table was set. The tin plates 
were distributed, each one had a clam-shell spoon, 
and there was one big fork for all to use — all set 
on the rock table. Time was called ; Whitmore de- 
sired to ask a blessing and did, no one objecting. 
At its close all pitched in and a more busy time was 
never seen at a pig feast. All pronounced it good 
and as nothing remained after dinner the opinion 
expressed was accepted. 

The party now began to consider what they would 
do on the following day, but before any definite ar- 
rangement was made every one in camp was taken 
sick — except the old mare, and she didn't eat pig. 
They had nothing to take but strong tea and red- 
head whiskey, but with this they reached home and 
were doubtless as well pleased as was the author of 
" Home, Sweet Home," when he completed his im- 
mortal poem. 

Passing from the Turkey River Camp, let us 
note the wonderful changes and improvements 
which time and the settlers are making along the 
great river, on its romantic shores and in the beau- 
tiful country which borders it. Permanent arrange- 
ments had been consummated for running lines of 
steamers between St. Louis and St. Paul, and be- 
tween Galena, Dubuque and St. Paul and every- 
thinQT looked cheerful. The islands, shores and 



INTRODUCTION 49 

river were animated with new life, and prosperity 
smiled on every face. The prairies were being 
settled and farms opened, and waving fields of 
wheat, oats and corn surrounded many a happy 
home. The plows were busy turning over more 
of the richest prairie land than had ever been 
opened to the sun, and the settlers were contented 
and happy. 

The country was over-run with wild game, from 
rabbits to buffaloes, and from coveys of quail to the 
gobblers of Turkey River ; the noisy brooks were 
alive with the speckled beauties; the Mississippi 
River was teeming with pickerel, bass and other 
species of the finest fish that live in fresh waters; 
— and neither the aristocracy of this nor any other 
country, with all their wealth, can have the luxuries 
which Nature furnished the early settlers of the 
upper Mississippi Valley. Verily, a more beauti- 
ful land, with happy homes, was never warmed by 
the rising sun. 

And a new era had now dawned upon the Father 
of Rivers which opens its mouth to kiss the tide. 
Steamers with side wheels, which fluttered like 
the wings of the pheasant when pounding on his 
old rotten log at dawn, to break the solitude — 
the thoughtful silence of Nature; the snow- 
white steamers, from below, came in and out 
among the green islands ; every stroke of a wood- 
man's axe was echoed from bluff to bluff; and the 
whistle of the steamers could be heard at every 



50 INTRODUCTION 

chopper's camp and pioneer's hut. The whistle 
was notice to all that the boat would land, and 
then everybody would gather at the landing, to 
listen to the music of the colored deck-hands' 
minstrel band. The band usually presented itself 
in a half circle on the bow of the lower deck, 
after the first whistle, and commenced the music 
long before the boat reached the shore ; and it 
was the sweetest music man ever listened to on 
this earth. Talk of opera — the noted singers of 
the day — their music, compared with the sweet- 
toned voices of the lower-river minstrels, would 
sound more like a band of screech-owls. 

The upper Mississippi River, its shores and its 
tributaries, from 1836 to 1865, was a paradise, and 
the grandest and best country for a poor man that 
Nature ever spread out. And if Adam and Eve 
could have seen it in early days they never would 
have settled in Eden. From here we follow the 
trail of O. W. Streeter, the homeless boy, to 
the Pacific Coast, Arizona and old Mexico, where 
he spent most of his time in 1873 and 1874. 



HERE WE FIND THE BOY AGAIN. 

In December, 1873, O.W. Streeter, no longer the 
homeless boy, left Minnesota on a business trip to 
California, Arizona and old Mexico. On reaching 
San Francisco he held a consultation with Gen. 
Amasa Cobb, one of the attorneys in the Mare Island 



INTRODUCTION 5 1 

case, and then continued his journey to San Diego, 
a pleasant Httle city on San Diego Bay that locks 
arms with the sea and forms part of the boundary 
line between the United States and Mexico. 

Here he remained until the sixteenth day of Jan- 
uary, 1874, when he secured wagon transportation 
from San Diego to Yuma, Ariz., by way of the 
Milkato mountains, to avoid trouble with the In- 
dians or the Mexicans en route. In passing over 
the foot-hills we saw many inviting places, sur- 
rounded with fruitful valleys and pleasant homes ; 
but, upon leaving the little Edens, we kept climb- 
ing until we reached the summits of the mountains, 
and the top of the highest ragged peak ; and from 
this point it looks as though the world was all be- 
low, and that the California desert that lies spread 
out before us is Nature's mirror. From this cloud- 
capped summit of the mountain range we descended 
to the desert and camped until about two o'clock in 
the morning, when we started and pulled across the 
sixty-mile waste, reaching the Colorado River and 
the city of Yuma about half past ten in the even- 
ing. 

This Mexican town has long had the reputation 
of being the hottest place on the Pacific Coast. It 
is located a short distance from the Gulf of Califor- 
nia, with which it is connected by the Colorado 
River steamers. Here we remained a short time, 
until our wagon train was ready, and away we went, 
on a mule pace, and reached the city of Tucson on 



52 INTRODUCTION 

the fifteenth day of February, 1874, after a long and 
tedious journey, having had to stand guard every 
other niafht with others, to watch the movements of 
the Apaches. 

Tucson is an old Mexican city, located about 
sixty miles north of the Mexican line, in Pima 
County, Arizona, on the Santa Cruz River, that 
flows through it and furnishes the city with plenty 
of water. It was the capital in 1874, but was subse- 
quently superseded by Prescott. The population in 
1874 was Mexican and Indian, with some Ameri- 
cans. 

The city is surrounded with mountains at a dis- 
tance — the Tucson range on the south, the Santa 
Catalena southeast, and on the north the Santa 
Ritas, that out-top them all, rising more than five 
thousand feet above the level of the sea, overlooking 
her pigmy brothers, that stand like footstools be- 
neath her mountain crest. These elevations have 
all the elements of a cold climate. It thunders, 
lightens, rains, freezes, snows and thaws, and 
often during the rainy season some of the finest 
electric exhibitions ever witnessed on earth are 
seen at the tops of these mountains by the people 
in the valleys. 

And here the question as to how Mexicans and 
others can raise so many fat cattle in Arizona with- 
out irrigation can be answered by the once homeless 
boy, who has traveled over the country and knows 
the facts from personal knowledge and observation. 



INTRODUCTION 53 

The mountain ranges of Arizona are fine and well 
adapted to stock raising. The first plateau below 
the summits of the Santa Rita mountains is a 
boundless field of green grass of the best quality — 
equal, if not superior, to the grass on the foot-hills 
of California, the difference being that the Arizona 
ranges are larger, greener and fresher every month 
in the year, and extend the whole length of the 
mountain ranges. This extensive mountain region 
is irrigated from the deep snows and heavy rains 
that fall on the summits of the mountains, and the 
little streams that constantly flow from the falling 
rain and melting snow, and spread over boundless 
fields below, are a part of Nature's system of irriga- 
tion. 

But no part of the water that fiows from the sum- 
mits of these mountains ever reaches the mesa lands 
or valleys below, to moisten the earth. This phe- 
nomenal condition of things is explained with the 
facts that when the water leaves the first plateau 
below the summit, it leaves the bed rock, and Nature 
does not furnish a substitute beyond this line; 
hence the water seeks subterranean passage till it 
finds a bed rock and is lost from the surface, valleys 
and mesa lands below. 

While countless herds of fat cattle may be seen 
loafing in the big pasture, the cattle's paradise, on 
the mesa lands below the summit of the Santa Ritas 
every month in the year, often mixed up with four 
or five species of the wild deer, including the ante- 



54 INTRODUCTION 

lope, — all feeding together as one herd, — the cows 
and calves run together, and are as wild as buffa- 
loes; but if one of the herd is wanted he is singled 
out and, with broncho and lasso, is soon made a 
prisoner. 

And before closing this brief notice of the Santa 
Rita mountains, memory would b^e unkind if it 
did not recall some of the interesting incidents 
which occurred on this mountain range, when Mr. 
Streeter was one of its frequent visitors, having 
purchased an interest in a copper mine during the 
excitement of the new discovery, located next to 
the highest point on the mountains, thirty miles 
distant from Tucson, by the only practicable route 
by which the summit and mines can be reached. 
The first twenty-five miles of road from Tucson to 
the big ranch, where we leave our horses and 
buggies and take jacks and jennies for the trail, is 
good. The trail from the big ranch to the summit 
and the mines is six miles, and every foot had to be 
blasted, making it a very expensive trail. It is 
narrow, with no turn-outs, is located from five hun- 
dred to a thousand feet above the bottom of the 
deep ravine, and it follows to the summit, with no 
room for a jack or jenny to meet; and, to avoid 
mistakes, a time was fixed to start from the summit 
and also from the ranch. Yet mistakes have been 
made, and our subject made one on his last trip 
to the mines. 

We started from the big ranch for the summit 



INTRODUCTION 55 

with a jack and a jenny at the proper time, as we 
supposed, but before we had traveled half the dis- 
tance we met a train coming down, and were 
brought to a sudden halt, as we could not pass, turn 
out or back out. A messenger was sent in haste to 
the superintendent of the mines at the summit, who 
realized at once the situation and sent six experi- 
enced miners with a complete outfit of blasting and 
mining tools. They came to the scene without 
delay and, after a careful examination of our critical 
condition, they commenced work. Some blasting 
had to be done, but this did not disturb us, for our 
jacks and jennies were raised in the mines and were 
used to it. Yet we had to stand guard every 
moment with the spears we had with us to keep the 
jacks and jennies on their feet, for they could not 
lie down and regain a foothold on the trail. The 
miners put off three light blasts and drove the rest 
with picks and gads, making a turnout for jacks 
and jennies to pass, but the shades of night had 
overtaken us, and no one ever attempted to follow 
this trail after night without a clear sky and a full 
moon. At this time the moon was full and just 
rising above the foot-hills, and we waited until the 
midnight lamp had reached a position above us 
where her strongest rays would illuminate our path- 
way, and then we started for the summit and the 
other party proceeded to the ranch. 

We reached the summit and mines without any 
further trouble, and were welcomed by the superin- 



56 INTRODUCTION 

tendent, who made us all comfortable for the night. 
After the nig^ht's good rest we arose to breathe the 
fresh mountain air and look upon some of Nature's 
grandest pictures of the Santa Rita mountains. 
After a brief visit at the summit copper mines and 
the claim of Mr. Streeter we returned to camp 
and had a pleasant time with those who lived on 
the summit and with visitors who were compelled 
to stay over on account of our blockade of the trail. 
The superintendent gave us a pressing invitation to 
remain until the following day and go down wath 
the evening train, saying he felt confident we would 
have a pleasant time, for the morning train was ex- 
pected to bring a delegation of Catholics and others 
from the San Xavier Church. 

The train of jacks and jennies arrived, bringing 
the distinguished visitors expected, who were wel- 
comed by the superintendent, who provided every- 
thing necessary for their comfort. After refresh- 
ments had been served and a short time spent in 
looking over the camp, drinking from pure fountains 
and breathing the fresh air of the summit, far above 
the heated valley and mesa lands below, the visitors 
left the camp to explore some of the wild, romantic 
scenery which surrounds the Santa Rita summits 
and to secure photographs of some of the promi- 
nent points — including the white quartz mound, 
the grandest of them all. This hill upon a moun- 
tain rises from one to two hundred feet above the 
summit of the mountain, and looks, from a distance, 



INTRODUCTION 57 

like a great mound of drifted snow. This grand 
phenomenal bump of Nature has always attracted 
the attention and admiration of visitors. 

It is not strange that the beautiful nun and her 
companion should have sought this place, in ad- 
vance of the exploring party, to view the scenes 
Nature had presented here, for thought and con- 
templation. After feasting their eyes upon the 
beauty surrounding this sacred spot, the nun's com- 
panion expressed a desire to find the exploring 
party and return with them. No sooner was her 
companion out of sight and hearing than the beau- 
tiful nun, deeply impressed with the grandeur and 
beauty of the scene before her, dropped upon her 
knees at the foot of the white mound and, with up- 
lifted hands and face, offered her prayers to Heaven. 
In the meantime the artist of the exploring party 
had reached the quartz mound for the purpose of 
taking a picture, and as he approached the foot of 
the mound he discovered the nun on her knees 
in the attitude of prayer, and lost no time in taking 
the picture of the little quartz mound, including 
the unconscious nun in her reverent attitude. The 
rest of the party had now arrived in time to see 
the nun still on her knees and with uplifted hands, 
but she rose to her feet when disturbed by the 
approach of so many, and did not know that her 
picture had been taken with the little quartz mound 
while she was kneelins: at its foot. 

o 

It was a meeting of congratulations, and then, 



58 INTRODUCTION 

with a farewell look at the sacred mound, the San 
Xavier party returned to camp, while Mr. Streeter 
and friend, who had witnessed one of the most 
impressive scenes that memory ever recorded, re- 
turned with the evening train to the big ranch. 
They found the thoroughbreds and their carriage 
all right, stopped over night and, in the cool of the 
morning, started for the city of Tucson. 

Gliding along, in the cool of the morning, with 
the thoroughbreds pulling on the lines, we discov- 
ered a small herd of Mexican cattle on our right, 
drawn up in lines of battle, but in different shape 
from anything we had ever seen before. At the 
head of this formation was one of the largest Mexi- 
can bulls we ever saw, and guarding the rear was 
one nearly as large. The sides, from front to rear, 
were fenced with bulls with their horns on the out- 
side. This excited our curiosity and we deter- 
mined to learn, if possible, what was on the inside 
of the fort. So Jim, who stood about six feet two, 
stepped on the seat to view the inside, and said it 
was full of cows and young calves. This told the 
whole story, and we commenced looking over the 
ground the bulls were watching so closely, and we 
saw coyotes popping up their heads in every direc- 
tion. The grass was full of them. They were 
watching for the calves, but we drove on, satisfied 
with the old saying, " Live and learn." 

The thoroughbreds now pulled stronger than 
ever on the Unes. While speeding across the 



INTRODUCTION 59 

road running east along the foot of the moun- 
tains, we sighted a band of about twenty-three 
Mexicans, on bronchos, carrying heavy arms, who 
had evidently discovered us and were making the 
best effort in their power to overtake us or get 
within shootino; distance. I turned the thorouo-h- 
breds loose. They ran together as even as two 
mice, and for a short distance the race was excit- 
ing. But the Kentucky bays soon placed the 
Mexican bronchos behind the distance pole, and 
we reached the city of Tucson in good time. 

Next morning we drove to the San Xavier 
Church. This relic of antiquity is located ten 
miles below the city of Tucson on the Santa 
Cruz River, in the county of Pima and Territory 
of Arizona, and was built by the Jesuits more than 
three hundred years ago. It has been twice raided 
and robbed of its gold and silver by the Apaches, 
but still remains a firm monument of olden time 
and holds within its sacred vaults the records of 
more than three hundred years. It was built of 
adobe brick and only few changes have been made; 
yet it remains solid and firm. It is about eighty by 
one hundred and twenty feet, and at least sixty 
feet from the bottom to the polished walls above, 
which are covered with rich paintings represent- 
ing distinguished men of olden times. On the 
left of the main entrance is an adobe gallery, 
evidently built for use of musicians and singers, 
and has a capacity of seating sixty persons. The 



60 INTRODUCTION 

seats can be reached by means of adobe steps on 
either side. The gallery is solid. The altar is 
on the north side of the building, and over 
one hundred feet from the gallery ; still, most of 
those standing behind it can be distinctly seen 
and recognized from the gallery. The following 
are some of the distinguished persons known to 
the world that have been moulded into such life- 
like pictures by the artist, and placed behind the 
altar of San Xavier Church, that they have always 
been taken by visitors, when a short distance away, 
as living beings. Among those standing behind 
the altar are many known to the ancient Roman 
Church : Joseph and John, Christ the Son of God 
and his Disciples ; and last, but not least, is Mary, 
the mother of Christ, who appears at three differ- 
ent periods of her life ; but the most beautiful of 
them all is where she appears with Our Saviour 
in her arms. 

Turning away from this grand old spot, sur- 
rounded with living memories of the past, we 
return to view the city of Tucson, the then capital 
of Arizona. In passing around among the public 
buildings, we saw the governor's adobe home. 
From there we passed over to the secretary's 
of^ce. Mr. Streeter approached the entrance and 
was astonished to meet Coles Bashford, formerly 
of Wisconsin and once governor of that State — 
his old friend and associate in early life — now 
Secretary of the Territory of Arizona, by Presi- 



INTRODUCTION 6 1 

dentlal appointment. A more unexpected and 
pleasant meeting of old friends in a strange land 
seldom occurs. The next place of interest visited 
was the post-office. On reaching the office Mr. 
Streeter received a letter of recent date statins; that 
he would have to remain in Tucson until further 
advised. 

During the months of March and April, 1874, 
while Mr. Streeter was in Tucson and vicinity 
nearly all the Apaches abandoned their reservation 
and took the war-path. They had been sighted 
several times and at different places by the friendly 
Papagos. The news spread and the people of the 
adobe city and vicinity were much excited, and with 
the aid of the Papagos, they placed a strong guard 
around the city at night. The military post, 
three miles from Tucson, was notified of the dan- 
ger and to be ready, as the troops might be called 
out at any time. 

It was in the last of March, 1874, when we kept 
the city guarded every night, that the Apaches 
made their midnight raid on the city of Tucson. 
They were met by the Papagos and Mexicans, with 
the few Americans that resided there, who made it 
hot for Cachise and his band until the boys arrived 
from the post, on American horses, when Cachise 
and his forces retreated in the direction of Mule 
Mountain, hotly pursued by the troops, with a 
small army of volunteers in the rear, including 
Mr. Streeter, trying to overtake the troops with 



62 INTRODUCTION 

our bronchos. But the American horses out- 
footed us and we had to drop behind. 

On the next day after the raid, according to an 
ancient custom among the Papagos which has been 
observed from time immemorial, they appeared on 
the streets of the city exhibiting on poles the heads 
of the Apaches they had killed in the battle with 
Cachise, singing their war songs and asking for 
presents, which they usually get. They have al- 
ways been loyal to the whites and are very different 
in many respects from other tribes and nations, 
more particularly in the government of their domes- 
tic affairs and tribal relations. Their penalty for a 
violation of the marriage contract is the loss of both 
ears and nose; and the enforcement of this rigid 
rule, it is said, accounts for the absence of half- 
breeds and mixed bloods among the Papagos. 

Cachise and his braves, after they were overtaken 
by our troops, near Mule Mountain, fought a run- 
ninor fiorht on their bronchos until the last one fell. 
The Apaches who escaped the battle were few. 
The bridle used on Cachise's broncho and his whip 
were presented to Secretary Bashford, who in turn 
gave them to his old friend O. W. Streeter, who 
now has possession of these Indian relics. 

This closed the history of the Apache raid on the 
city of Tucson in 1874, and ended the career and 
life of Cachise, the most wretched and inhuman 
Indian chief of the nineteenth century, and the only 
one who ever inaugurated and successfully main- 



INTRODUCTION 63 

tained a reign of terror over Mexico, Arizona and 
the mountain regions of the Gulf for nearly half a 
century by robbing and murdering unprotected 
citizens. 

We next find our subject in receipt of late in- 
structions from New York and preparing for a 
trip to Sonora, Mexico. His outfit was nearly 
complete; he had secured a four-seated vehicle, 
with four mules, water-casks, camp fixtures, provi- 
sions, barley and firearms, a guide, cook, driver, inter- 
preter, translator and night watch. With this out- 
fit we left Tucson on the following day for the City 
of Magdalena in the State of Sonora, Mexico. The 
first day we reached the half-way camp ground, be- 
tween Tucson and the custom house, on the line 
between Arizona and Sonora. The second day we 
crossed the dividing ridge between the custom 
house and the Magdalena River, and passed the old 
camp on the summit of the dividing ridge long 
known as the travelers' camp. 

While crossing the ridge our attention was called 
by the guide to an Apache post-office. The mules 
were brought to a halt and all got out to examine 
the ingenious work of wild, uneducated Indians. 
The office consisted of a large, irregularly formed 
pile of (mostly) cobblestones, laid up with some 
regularity, and located on a sightly spot at the 
junction of four deep- worn Indian trails, which 
cross the main thoroughfares and in places run 
parallel with them. Around this general office, 



64 INTRODUCTION 

our Mexican interpreter and translator said, the 
Apaches concentrate when on a raid, to report and 
receivp instructions. All the raiding bands report 
at this office their defeat or success as the case 
may be. This is done by changing the position of 
some particular stone or by adding another. When 
something startling or important is to be reported, 
the silent stone, with an evergreen, is placed in a 
new position among the rocks. And the language 
of this pile of silent pebbles and their evergreen 
companions is as well understood by the Apaches 
as our language is by us. 

After a close examination of the Apache cen- 
tury plant, or post-office department, we continued 
our journey to Sinaloa, by way of Magdalena, Her- 
mosillo, and other points, to examine records and 
secure copies from the archives of Sinaloa and 
Sonora. This we did and then returned to Mag- 
dalena to remain over night. Here we learned 
that nearly all the Apaches w^io from choice ac- 
cepted homes on the reservation after the capture 
of Cachise in 1874 — numbering between three and 
four hundred — had abandoned their reservation 
and taken the war-path, following their old trails 
into Mexico, along the dividing ridge. 

We got an early start from Magdalena and had 
the cool of the morning to travel in. We reached 
the old camp ground on the summit of the dividing 
ridge a little before sundown, but the news the boy 
received at MaQ:dalena made him cautious about 



INTRODUCTION 65 

selecting a camp ground for the night. The men 
and mules were tired and hungry and wanted to 
stop, for there was no other camp ground this side 
of the custom house, and, while Mr. Streeter was 
making a close search for fresh Indian signs, near 
the old camp ground and old Apache trail, the 
boys had unhitched and taken care of the mules, 
built a camp fire and were preparing to get supper, 
when a very fine outfit,, on its way to Tucson, drove 
up and turned into camp for the night. It was 
composed of a four-seated coach hauled by six 
mules, with passengers, driver, cook, guide and in- 
terpreter — numbering twelve altogether. 

In the meantime Mr. Streeter discovered a fresh 
Apache trail and from the signs he estimated their 
number to be about three hundred. Their trail 
was visible on the north side of the summit of the 
dividing ridge, nearly half a mile from the camp. 
He reported to the company what he had found 
and all followed him down to see it. Upon reach- 
ing the ground he explained that the earth was 
so completely covered with rock that neither a 
broncho nor Indian in walking over it would make 
the least impression on the ground, although it was 
fairly covered with grass — the only means through 
which he had discovered their trail — and he called 
the attention of his company to the well-defined road 
the Indians left behind them in passing through the 
grass, which he, who was familiar with Indian life, 
could plainly see, but the rest could not. He made 



66 INTRODUCTION 

a second effort to convince them by showing that 
the grass was all bent one way for about the width 
of fifty feet and that outside of that line the grass 
stood straight ; then added that from the long ex- 
perience he had had in Indian life in the Northwest 
he was satisfied that his apprehensions were well 
founded and that the Indians were not at that 
time five miles from the camp. But the men could 
not see it in that light and preferred to remain in 
the old camp over night with the strangers, al- 
though they said they were subject to his order 
and would not stay without his consent. 

He made no further objection, but took his satchel 
of papers, with revolvers, and started, saying it was 
all down hill and he could make it in an hour, and 
adding, " You will find me at the custom house in 
the morning." He started on a lively gait, but be- 
fore he had passed out of sight a messenger from 
the camp overtook him and said the boys had de- 
cided to come along and were hitching up. He 
made a halt and in less than a half hour they were 
all on the way to the custom house, where they ar- 
rived safely and were soon settled for the night. 

Morning came, but we did not hurry, for we had 
only thirty miles to drive to reach the half-way 
camp between the custom house and Tucson. 
About nine o'clock, when we had hitched up and 
were about ready to continue our journey for 
Tucson,, a boy came fiying in on a broncho with a 
message for the custom house, stating that the six- 



INTRODUCTION 67 

mule coach, with ten passengers, which pulled into 
the old camp on the divide about sundown the night 
before had been attacked by the Apaches, who mur- 
dered all the men, so horribly mutilated the victims 
that their personal identity was beyond recognition, 
destroyed the coach and other property and took 
away the mules. And had it not been for the 
caution and the long experience of Mr. Streeter 
among the Indians of the Northwest, he and his 
party would have been numbered with the victims 
of the old camp massacre, which for inhuman tor- 
ture has no parallel in the history of Indian war- 
fare. 

With this startling news we continued our jour- 
ney to Tucson, Ariz., and reached the capital city 
the following day, when our employees returned to 
their respective homes. Mr. Streeter soon closed 
his business in Tucson and was homeward bound to 
New York, to report to the parties who employed 
him to examine title to certain Spanish grants 
located in California, Arizona and New Mexico, in 
which the New York parties claimed an interest 
under the treaty stipulations between the two gov- 
ernments. 

Here we close the interesting sketches of the early 
boyhood of O. W. Streeter, the once homeless boy, 
his pioneer settlement, life and experiences in early 
days on the upper Mississippi River, his travels in 
Southern California, Arizona and old Mexico in 
1873 and 1874. We now present his poem en- 



68 INTRODUCTION 

titled "A Dream of Life in Other Worlds, with 
God in Everything," also miscellaneous poems, 
composed at different periods of his life, all of 
which are respectfully submitted to the critical 
test of public opinion. 




O. W. STREETER. 
Taken in 1868, 



A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS, 
WITH GOD IN EVERYTHING. 

By Oscar W. Streeter, "The Homeless Boy." 

Minds that act in their proper sphere 
May fill their measure of glory here, 
While those who mount the doubtful tide 
May sink or wreck on the other side ; 
For thought grows weary, as fades the spark, 
And homeward blunders, for all is dark. 

Still oft the smallest of boats, you see, 
Will venture out on a shoreless sea. 
And fearless captains, with crew and mate, 
Will try the waves and challenge fate. 

So feeble thoughts come limping along 
To fill the measure of stupid song ; 
But hither we rise or thither we fall, 
Thoughts of our being concern us all. 

And first in visions that seemed divine, 
Came thought, with startling records of time, 
Through realms of beauty where knowledge is bliss, 
And world after world is turning with this. 



yo A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 

And lo ! as I slept, and the mind was free, 
A relic of ages revealed to me 
That God is in Nature, and every part. 
However small, has a vital spark. 

Through boundless space, and space minute, 
From giant oaks to flowers that shoot. 
From brooks that sing and kiss the tide. 
And frowning hills on the other side. 
From mountains of sea that rise and fall, 
And tow'ring peaks above them all. 
There's nothing in heaven or earth below 
But has new germs of life to sow. 

Even the dust that our feet have tread 
Has life and power to raise the dead ; 
And how can this eternal power 
Destroy itself who brings the hour ? 
For God is eternal and breathes in all, 
And how can His wisdom e'er rise or fall ? 

Matter may change and decompose. 
But the stream of life still onward flows 
From fields of light to depths below; 
And worlds beyond, for aught we know, 
Through endless veins too small to scan, 
It ebbs and flows from God to man. 
And every part supports the whole, 
As countless ages onw^ard roll. 



A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 7 1 

But minds too small to comprehend 
The laws of reason oft offend ; 
And on, through mist of ages past, 
They drift and sway like a reeling mast 
Riding the surf of a doubtful tide, 
With empty bubbles on every side ; 
Teaching the minds of mortals here. 
That all within this hapless sphere 
Must melt like wax before the flame. 
And darkness spread her wings again, 
Till every gleam of life and light 
Is lost in one eternal night. 

Oh ! wretched thought and minds perverse, 

To thus assail God's universe, — 

First learn what every fool should know, 

That all that live have life to sow, — 

That quick from every dying root 

A thousand healthy saplings shoot ; 

That rivers dry for want of rain. 

But Nature's volume is the same ; 

That every living, creeping thing 

Has generations born within, — 

Learn half that Nature has unfurled, 

Then guess the riddle of the world. 

With science circle other suns. 
Learn how and when old time begun. 
How Adam slipped so far from grace. 
That sentence passed on all his race. 



72 A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 

How evil, with her motley brood, 
In Eden triumphed over good. 
Turn all these pictures face to face. 
And measure time with endless space. 

Then say if worlds must cease to be, 

What lies beyond the border sea ; 

Ask Time if ages have betrayed 

The thought that worlds were never made. 

Turn all the mystic pages o'er — 

Let every thought with reason blend — 

Then ask where time and space can end. 

From kindred worlds the echo comes, 
Our fields are warmed by other suns, 
We form a part of an endless whole. 
With God the fountain and the soul. 

No clouds or mist obscure the sky 
Where worlds like ships are sailing by ; 
No canyons deep or hills of snow. 
No dreary waste spreads out below; 
No wandering planets hide the sun. 
Or time is kept, for the years are one ; 
No changes mark the seasons here, 
No autumn winds or winters drear ; 
But hills and vales are always green, 
And a wrinkled face is never seen. 
For souls of earth are as young to-day 
As when they entered their tents of clay, 
And all are happy that come this way. 



A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 73 

No golden suns e'er rise or set, 
Or souls are taxed with life's regret; 
But all are blessed with one desire — 
To rise in the scale of wisdom higher, 
And on and up by due degrees 
They'll rise through all Eternity; 
For there is no higher aim than this, 
Where knowledge is the source of bliss. 

But time and space that lie between 
The souls of earth and skies serene 
No saint can measure or time unfold, 
For the hidden pages can't be told. 

We form the centre of peopled worlds. 

That 'round and 'round in endless whirl 

Reveal new faces of life and light. 

Where skies are clear and suns are bright ; 

Where forests bloom and oceans roll. 

And mountains stretch from pole to pole; 

Where rivers leap from beds to sea. 

And millions live that millions see. 

Where waves chase waves from shore to shore, 

That sing as they break forevermore. 

And fairest maids at early dawn 
Trip lightly o'er the flowery lawn. 
Busy with Nature's thoughtful hours, 
As bees that sip from open flowers, 
Singing the song of endless time ; 



74 A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 

Where fields of God are all sublime, 
And countless worlds, with measured pace. 
Go whirling through eternal space; 
Where endless time has grown so old, 
No dates are kept or time is told ; 
But every page of ancient lore 
Repeats what ages sung before, — 
That naught was ever doomed by fate. 
And man's creation has no date. 

And who, when reason has control. 
Would venture, at the risk of all, 
To claim that God's eternal laws 
Could ever change or make a pause ? 
That Heaven ne'er conceived the plan 
Of giving life and thought to man 
Till Eden marked the fatal place, 
Where Eve and Adam fell from grace ? 

Thus reason oft mistakes the way. 
And blunders where 'tis light as day. 
For ages have the truth foretold. 
That earth is not the only world. 
But far beyond this mortal sphere. 
Where Edens bloom as w^ell as here, 
Man has lived, through endless time. 
In other lands and other climes. 
Where kindred worlds with kindred race 
Are marching on through heavenly space, 
And countless millions, ever free. 
Are moving through eternity. 



A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 75 

No grand display of borrowed fame, 
No tyrants honored with a name ; 
No hypocrites with faces long, 
Or maidens fair, with siren song ; 
No millionaires who scourged the earth. 
Or lords from accidental birth ; 
No kings or queens inherit thrones, 
No power supreme but God alone ; 
And millions shout while millions sing. 
God lives and moves in everything, — 
In worlds above and worlds below, 
Where generations come and go, 
Where time no secrets can unfold. 
Or oceans fret when Nature scolds, 
But where the lofty summits rise 
Above the light of earthly skies. 

A mirage of beauty was seen to rise — 
'Twas a picture of Heaven that all could see 
Till it faded in mist and passed away. 

And turning back from the heavenly scene, 
I wondered if all we had seen was a dream ; 
Then drifting away with spirit guide 
To peopled worlds on the other side, 
We saw, while measuring time and space. 
The curtain drop, and face to face 
Were kindred forms of a kindred race. 



76 A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 

The first that met our dreamy eyes 

Was the kindred look of passers-by; 

No fathers, mothers or children here, 

But all were smiling and free from care 

As the unseen Hand that placed them there. 

When Adam sinned and fell from grace, 
No one was found to fill his place ; 
And sentence passed on all the earth. 
But not on worlds of foreign birth ; 
For all within this land of mirth 
Were born as Adam was born on earth. 

'Tis a world of wonders, with valleys and hills, 
Oceans and rivers, mountains and rills ; 
Where forests and flowers eternally bloom, 
And roses are climbing to shed their perfume. 

The fields are all fruitful, the valleys are green ; 
The harvest is gathered, no reapers are seen ; 
Every face is a volume, and every page 
Says they are all of one family, and all of one age. 

Their beautiful temples, all covered with gold. 
Like the evergreen pages, will never grow old. 
They see not the hands, but the changes they bring 
Remind us that God is in everything. 

They worship the Saviour and honor His birth, 
And pray to our Father like mortals on earth ; 
They are free from the sentence of Adam and Eve, 



A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS ']'] 

And are happy while earth's generations must 

grieve ; 
They welcome all kindred and spirits that call, 
And sing with creation that God is in all. 

No time-faded records that memory disowns, 
Or thoughts of hereafter disturb them at home ; 
But happy as spirits they sing as they glide. 
The song of the brook as it flows to the tide. 

Oh ! nightless and cloudless, fair dreamland of Even, 

Your blessings all flow from the fountain of Heaven^ 

No record is kept of your slumbering ages, 

For Nature has opened her unwritten pages ; 

And all who will read the secret may know 

That the wisdom of God will forever flow 

Through fountains eternal, above and below. 

Its grandeur of thought never rises to fall, 

For God is in Nature and Nature in all. 

His wisdom and power has no limit or bound, 

And only with man can His image be found. 

And long before Earth and Eden were known. 
Or the Star in the East had greeted the morn. 
Planets were moving with heavenly grace. 
And worlds revolving face to face. 

Then when was the time that there was no time, 

No Power above, no Hand divine. 

No worlds to sing in the endless race, 

Or search in vain for the bounds of space ; 



y8 A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 

No lights, for darkness leads the way, 
And strange confusion has the sway; 
Not a gleam of light or hope is here, 
For the promised end is drawing near. 

Oh ! shattered minds that would reverse 
The Hand that moves the universe, 
You claim a beginning and end of all, — 
That the power and glory of God must fall ; 
But reason, shocked at the startling thought, 
Laughs at the follies that men have taught. 

Go, ask of Time and the midnight Sun, 
When worlds their endless race begun ; 
How long our planets have circled suns, 
Ere Earth her waltz with Time begun. 

Ask waves how long they've kissed the shore, 
The answer comes : " Forevermore." 
Ask Satan, who still resides on earth, 
And knows of Eve's and Adam's birth, 
If worlds outside of earth were known 
When Heaven smiled on Adam's home. 

Ask stars, that rise and set with suns, 

To fix the time when Time begun ; 

Ask rivers, that roll to kiss the tide, 

How long they've hugged the mountain side ; 

How long they've mingled their endless song, • 

The echo comes: " How long, how long ? " 



A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 79 

For there is no power but Power divine 
Could make new worlds with suns to shine, 
And all creation shout and sing, 
His hand is seen in everything. 
And Nature joins the endless strain, 
And sings it o'er and o'er again. 

Ask worlds that glide like ships at sea, 
How long they've sailed with Eternity, 
When tides began to ebb and flow, 
That mark the changes come and go. 

Then smoothe the wrinkled brow of Time, 
And open new fields of thought sublime ; 
Explore the regions of life and light, 
Then ask, " Will this be changed to-night ? " 

Will the matchless Hand that fashioned all 
Destroy itself if Time shall call .? 
Eternity's voice the answer brings, — 
" God lives and moves in everything. 
And naught can change His endless plan, 
Or the living promise made to man." 

If there was a time when Time begun, 
The end of all must surely come; 
And future hope, all buried deep. 
In one chaotic grave would sleep. 

Reckless thought to thus contend 
With minds that common-sense offend. 
When Nature has the law proclaimed, 



8o A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 

That God's creation has no end, 
And man was first of all designed 
For higher spheres in worlds divine. 

But evil smiles on every side, 

And rides the waves of time and tide 

With power that feign would forge a key 

To God's eternal safe ; 

That holds within its sacred grasp 

The secrets of all time. 

And moves that universe of w^orlds 

That have no birth-time, will or power, 

To chano^e their beinor or their end. 

And ere suspended Nature was restored, 

That acts through God's mysterious laws, 

These shifting scenes and silent musings of the past 

Were left for memory to unfold in life-like pictures ; 

And every effort to erase the startling page 

Was powerless as the siren song 

To hush the music of the waves. 

And wandering spirits, commissioned from above, 
Held night revelry with prostrate Nature ; 
While heaven-born tenants of the mind, weary 
With daily round of toil, hasty exit made 
To spirit land, where fair-eyed daughters of the Sun 
Hold sweet converse with kindred souls of earth. 
That fairest nymphs, compositors above. 
Might reconstruct and set the types 
For mortals here below. 



A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 8 1 

And here the startling vision passed, 

Like threatening clouds do often cast their dark, 

prophetic 
Shades long before the fury of the storm, " 
Leaving upon the skirts of a sun-lit sky 
Lone specks, that stand like sentinels at sea. 
To warn the faithful mariner of gathering storms 
That oft succeed e'en springtime's gentle calm, 
And move at greatest depths 
Dark fountains of untold grief. 

Then Nature woke at Nature's call. 
But found no end or worlds to fall ; 
Nothing but grandeur on every side. 
As we drifted away with our spirit guide 
To the mountain land all circled by sea. 

Fair Even, we come with our songs to thee, 

We come where the hills and the valleys all meet. 

Where God's singing river flows clear at your 

feet; 
And all who believe and are free from strife 
May drink from this fountain of heavenly life. 

Oh ! land where the sun never rises or sets, 
And all are free from earth's regrets ! 
Farewell. To whatever land or sea 
Our thoughts may drift away from thee, 
Memory will keep the record bright 
Till we come again in our dreamy flight. 



82 A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 

And again we are passing through scenes all new, 

Where planets, like rockets, are passing through 

A world of worlds that compass all, 

And bind the parts of an endless whole 

To God's eternal universe, 

That Nature, Reason and Time contend 

Had no beginning, and never can end; 

For there is no power that end can bring. 

When God is the life of everything. 

And passing on with spirit guide. 

In the old familiar trail outside, 

We are called by the touch of an unknown hand 

To view the distant spirit-land. 

And upward turning our dreamy eyes 
We saw the beauty of heavenly skies. 
Where angels meet at the saintly dome 
To welcome the wandering spirits home. 

And viewing the scene with our faithful guide. 
We are met by our kindred on every side ; 
And smile greets smile from faces we knew. 
While they sing the sweet song : " We know it is 

you. 
And we know that your flight from earth in a 

dream 
Is the only way known that our world can be seen, 
Save those who abandon their tents of clay, 
To mingle with spirits who know the way." 



A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 83 

No gifted soul or child of art 
Can ever the secrets of mind impart, 
For the endless ages have never taught 
The wisdom and power of silent thought. 

Mysterious agent ! how little we know 
Of the living source from which you flow ; 
Think, and the message of thought is there, 
For the distance is one, no matter where. 

No electric flash from clouds or wire 
Can ever the speed of thought acquire ; 
For that is a part of the sacred whole 
That memory binds to the living soul. 

Again we drift, with faithful guide, 
To peopled worlds on the other side, 
Where all rejoice, and sing the song, 
" There is no time when Time begun." 

And all are blessed with one desire, — 

To rise towards Heaven, still higher and higher, 

And on and up their course will be, 

In the endless race with Eternit}^ 

But the boundless space, to souls unknown 
No angel wings can overcome ; 
And all whose hopes to Heaven aspire 
Will find the Temple of God still higher. 



84 A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 

Oh ! land where wisdom is all divine, 
And worlds are stamped with endless time, 
Had we the power and gift of song 
To paint the scenes as we drift along, 
What a beautiful sight for all to view, 
Where millions of earth are passing through, 
To meet the loved of their kindred band 
At the saintly home — the spirit-land. 



Again we dream of worlds outside, 
And away on fairy wings we glide, 
Where Nature's inspirations sing, 
God lives and moves in everything ; 
His endless power extends to all 
And how can it rise or how can it fall ? 
For there is no end to unknown space, 
No end to worlds in the endless race ; 
No end to Nature, for God is the soul, 
And its endless pages are open to all ; 
No end to His wisdom, it has no bounds. 
And its limit no mortal or saint has found. 



No end to planets that waltz with Time, 

No end to glory that's all divine ; 

No end to tides that ebb and flow. 

Or the countless millions that come and go 

No end to God's eternal laws. 

That never change or make a pause. 



A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 85 

What power can change the Hand divine, 

Or stop the endless wheels of Time ; 

Revise the records of ages past, 

And claim that worlds must fall at last ; 

Reverse the laws of God to man, 

And change His universal plan ? 

Ask Justice to resign her place. 

And reconstruct a fallen race, — 

Then fix the end of Time and Space. 

Change Heaven's laws, creation span, 
And say that God's unjust to man; 
Rebuke the waves that hug the shore. 
And sing with Time : " Forevermore ! " 

Then climb the old historic hills. 
And change the course of mountain rills; 
Hush Nature's music of the soul, 
And rule the w^orld from pole to pole. 

What evil spirit seeks control, 
To misdirect the human soul ; 
Resist God's law, and thus profane 
His endless power and holy name ? 

Poor mortal specks of earthly clay, 
That live on mercy day by day ! 
You feign would change the universe, 
And God's eternal laws reverse. 



86 A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 

Reckless minds to evil given, 
How dark will be your way to Heaven ; 
Hopeless and cheerless the journey will be 
Through the silent shades of Eternity ! 

Again we view the wonderland, 
With untold beauty on every hand. 
No sky above or worlds below, 
No wandering planets come or go ; 
No rising suns with smiling ray, 
For light is one eternal day. 

But souls that knew not God below 
Can never this land of spirits know ; 
For all who spurn His power to save 
Have nothing to hope beyond the grave ; 
But pass unblessed from earth away 
To a silent and thoughtless nonentity. 

But the unseen Hand, that changes with time 
Every atom of matter that Nature refines. 
May r.emould it for higher and nobler spheres, 
But 'twill never be known or identified here ; 
For mortals who worship their earthly clay 
Are doomed to the shades in Eternity. 

Then we turn with our guide to gradation day, 
Where saints are coming from every way. 
Waving their signals of brotherly love, 
We come from the beautiful realms above ; 
And all who honor and praise Him here 
May rise to a higher and nobler sphere. 



A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS d>'J 

And many are waiting with strong desire 
To share the honor of rising higher ; 
And all who pass the saints' review 
May rise still higher where all is new, 
Where worlds are moving with power divine, 
Measuring space with the step of Time ; 
No compass to vary the endless line, 
Or power to change the great design. 

But saints inspired with Christian love 
That flows from highest source above 
May rise forever in endless race, 
But never can reach that holy place 
Where all are blessed with hig-her thought 
Than Nature or Time has ever tauo^ht ; 
Where there are no planets to rise and shine, 
Or aught to change the tick of Time ; 
Where souls to higher world may soar, — 
But far above is millions more ; 
No matter how many the path have trod, 
'Tis the same creation and hand of God. 

And the higher we rise in our dreamy flight, 

The plainer we see the golden light ; 

But the space 'twixt us and the heavenly Throne. 

Can never be measured or overcome ; 

But angels may rise above us here. 

And fold their wings in a brighter sphere. 



55 A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 

Now thoughts to foreign worlds ascend, 
And search is made for the endless end ; 
But nothing is found that can decide 
What Hes just over the other side. 

Then we turn with limited reason and thought 
To read the lessons that Nature has taught, 
But see no end to time or space; 
No end to the fall of Adam's race; 
No end to Heaven's eternal law; 
No end to worlds above us all ; 



No end to higher saintly bliss; 

No end to planets that move with this; 

No end to Nature's endless song 

That there is no time when Time begun. 

Now, we turn to the glory that sparkles above, 
Where harmony mingles with sacred love. 
And the mind reviews the beautiful scenes 
Through which we passed in our heavenly dreams. 

And Thought is startled, but Reason is calm 
O'er the wisdom revealed in His endless plan; 
But the picture that dazed all saintly eyes 
Was the mirage that Heaven was passing by. 
And turning away from the fading scene, 
I wondered if all that had passed was a dream. 



A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 89 

Then searching new worlds of endless duration, 

We found no date of man's creation; 

And there's nothing to show 'twixt heaven and 

earth 
That man ever had a mortal birth 
Till Adam sinned and fell from grace 
And sentence passed on all his race. 

But the worlds of people that circle above, 
Singing their endless songs of love. 
Are free from the sentence that passed on earth 
And all are blessed with immortal birth; 
Their years not numbered, for time has no end. 
And the laws of their being they never offend. 

They have Eves but no children, for all is divine, 
And no mortal is found to kneel at their shrine ; 
They are happy as Eden before the great fall, 
And shout with creation that God is in all. 

That Earth was a part of the endless creation. 
But void, without shape or worldly formation. 
Till God breathed light and life through it all, 
And Earth became part of the living whole. 

But how can Time and Reason claim 
That God had ne'er conceived the plan 
Of making and stamping His image on man 
Till Adam, the first-known child of earth, 
Was born and blessed with immortal birth. 



90 A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 

To foreign worlds this startling thought 

Would sound like something that Time had forgot; 

But the living records above and below, 

Not made by hands, the truth will show, — 

That man has lived through endless time, 

Stamped with the image of God divine. 

But the mind is too small to see and scan 
The wisdom and glory of His endless plan ; 
But thought will fly in dreams from its own 
To mystical regions unfathomed, unknown ; 
But dazed with their beauty returns to its home. 
And again the mind with animation 
Recalls the scenes of man's creation, 
And turns to Adam's endless fall. 
That sealed the fate of one and all. 

But foreign worlds above are free 
From the judgment, sentence and decree; 
And all beyond the bounds of earth 
Are free from the taint of mortal birth. 

Long have we followed our spirit guide 
On dreamy wings, passed side by side 
Through spirit-worlds and kindred scenes, 
That are only seen in heavenly dreams. 

And again we are lost in contemplation 
Of the hidden page of man's creation, 
And ask of foreign worlds divine, 



A DREAM OF LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS 

How long has he Hved with endless Time, 
How long has he lived where w^orlds are free? 
The echo comes : " Eternally." 



Here ends the dream we've followed with our guide 

Through peopled worlds on every side ; 

But found no page of mortal birth, 

For the Holy Book and all below belongs to Earth. 

While foreign worlds have statutes of their own. 

But all are stamped at God's Eternal Throne. 



MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



SPRING. 



Oh, dreary land and rock-ribbed hills, 

With ravines deep and rippling rills; 

Your mountain tops and rural shade 

In Winter's gloom are wont to fade; 

But Spring, ere long, with balmy breeze, 

Will whisper soft among thy trees, 

And vernal showers will gently fall 

And give new life and birth to all. 

Then Earth will change from Winter's gloom 

To flowery beds that bud and bloom. 

While every voice unites to sing 

The beauties of another Spring. 

No voice is mute or heart is sad, 
But all rejoice and Earth is glad; 
And Phebe sings it o'er and o'er, 
Winter's blast is feared no more. 

PoTosi, Wisconsin Territory, 1846. 



MAY 



93 



MAY. 



Who can e'er the works of Nature trace, 
As time rolls on and keeps a measured pace, 
And mark the changing seasons as they bring 
From Winter's blast the vernal flowers of Spring, 
And still deny the kind parental hand 
That gives the rose its blush and life to man ? 
Oh ! would some poet's song, in tuneful lay, 
With truth sublime could paint the scenes of May, 
As on the wild romantic shores of Grant 
The whippoorwill renews his evening chant ; 
The hooting owl with laughter shakes his sides 
And discord makes with all the feathered tribes; 
The pheasant, too, more modest in her way. 
Resumes her seat, to hail the coming day; 
Where all unite and give one hearty cheer 
To welcome May, the choice of all the year. 

PoTosi, Wisconsin Territory, 1846. 



94 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



"COME TO THE BLOOMING WEST, MOTHER. 

Come to the blooming West, mother. 

Bright scenes await thee here. 
And kindred hearts are waiting now 

Thy bosom for to cheer. 

Oh, leave that gloomy barren waste — 

A brighter sky is here ; 
Though Autumn's leaves are yellow, 

And Winter's winds are drear. 

Come ; Spring will give a brighter shade 
To each field and leafless tree. 

Oh, stay no longer there, mother; 
We are waiting now for thee. 

Come to the blooming West, mother; 

Our Spring comes always first. 
And the fairest flowers blossom here 

That ever graced the earth. 

Come, where new songs will greet thee 
And where Nature's all sublime, 

Where the stars above seem brighter 
Than in that land of thine; 



"come to the blooming west, mother 

Where the birds make sweeter music, 
And the sun more glorious shines; 

Oh, come to our fair prairie land, 
'Tis a better land than thine. 

Come to the blooming West, mother. 
If a happy land you'd know ; 

Where the hand of sore oppression 
Never aimed the fatal blow. 

Where the rich are like the poor. 
And no better can they be; 

Oh ! come to our little paradise. 
Where the heart is light and free. 

Come to the blooming West, mother; 

With thy presence I can bear 
All the ills of life with pleasure. 

And ease that brow of care. 

Come, ere the Springs shall number 

Sixty-one upon thy brow. 
Come, a hearty welcome waits thee ; 

We are waiting for thee now. 

New Lebanon, III., December 5, 1S48. 



95 



96 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



WINTER. 

Rude Boreas pours a chilling blast, 
Which binds with chains all Nature fast, 
And wintry clouds, with snowy face. 
Are gathering now with rapid pace. 

The Frost King rules with icy hand 
O'er scenes late swayed by Beauty's wand; 
The flowers which graced the mountain side 
With Autumn's leaves have drooped and died. 

The birds of Summer have forsook 
The clustering grove along the brook, 
And naught is heard but Winter's howl, 
Save, now and then, a hooting owl. 

The naked trees, by Autumn rude. 
Are doomed to months of solitude ; 
The pebbly brook that murmured low 
Has almost stopped its gentle flow. 

Hills, dales and fields, where Beauty stood, 
Are dressed and mourn in widowhood ; 
The Sun no more, with living rays, 
Pours gladness o'er the lengthened days ; 



WINTER 97 

But every faint, cold, feeble ray 
Which strives to shine is chased away; 
Like freaks of joy, which light the heart, 
They come, but, oh ! how soon depart. 

Were Hope not present, with its cheer, 
How dark would be the landscape drear! 
Man fain would leave the scene and fly 
To fairer land and brighter sky. 

Lansing, I a., December 22, 1851. 



98 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



SPRING. 

Welcome, Spring ! fair queen of Earth, 

And thanks to Him who gave thee birth, 

When Heaven and Earth from darkness rose 

And broke the long unknown repose. 

What richer boon could e'er be given 

To Earth than Spring — fair chart of Heaven.? 

What purer fount of thought to man 

Could e'er have graced His glorious plan? 

What brighter hope of a goal sublime 

Could measure the length and breadth of time ?• 

Or heal old Winter's deepest wounds, 

And rear sweet flowers from earthly tombs ; 

Cheer up the drowsy, leafless trees. 

Unchain the rivers and swell the seas; 

Bid wintry winds to leave the shore 

They've wrought such ruin o'er and o'er. 

And with one touch of magic hand 

Strew flowers where Death o'erspread the land; 

Renew the dreary, dark creation. 

With life and mirth, and vegetation ? 

Oh, naught, save modest maiden May, 
That dances o'er the milky way. 
With finger soft to paint the flower, 
As she sits a queen in her sylvan bower 



SPRING 99 

Queen of the heart, queen of the year, 
Queen of the whole terrestrial sphere — 
Could gladden Earth with a silken tress 
And cover her forms with a smiling dress; 
Tune Nature's harp, that all may sing: 
Welcome flowers, welcome Spring. 

O birthtime of thought, enchantment divine, 

If the heart was e'er glad, 'tis bowed at thy shrine ; 

If the mind was e'er free from the turmoils of life 

That weary the brain with the spirit of strife, 

'Tis at sober eve, when queenly May, 

Like a blushing maid, in a modest way, 

Draws misty curtains around her bed 

And seeks repose; while the nightly tread 

Of sister spirits to whom 'tis given 

To sprinkle the earth with the dew of Heaven, 

When the Moon, joint traveler — own sister by 

birth — 
Reflects borrowed light o'er the stillness of earth. 
The mind is enraptured ; thought flies from its own 
To mystical regions, unfathomed, unknown, 
And feasts on the grandeur till wrecked on the sea 
Of a boundless, unmeasured immensity. 
And returns to its dome, like the loaded bee, 
Drunk with Heaven's sublimity ; 
And viewing the desolate ruins of May, 
Exclaims: Oh, life is too short a day! 

New Lebanon, III., March 20, 1851. 
LofC, 



lOO MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



MINNESOTA. 

Minnesota, ermine daughter, 

Fairest face on earth, I ween. 
Rumor says you're out a-wooing, 

Ere you've reached your girlish teens. 
Greatest wonder of all wonders, 

News more strange than this we hear; 
Uncle Sam says our sweet Minne's 

Bound to grace a higher sphere. 
Gracious heavens ! what's the meaning ? 

Men half puzzled, women vexed, 
While Mrs. Partington is dreaming, 

Winking, squinting, through her specs ; 
O'er she turns the latest paper, 

Reads about the mighty West. 
Two hundred thousand ! gracious ! gracious ! 

Heaven only knows what's best ! 
For Minne's got two hundred thousand 

Full grown babies at her breast ; 
And they're healthy, happy babies, 

Rosy cheeked, with laughing eye. 
Gathering wealth from Minne's bosom, 

'Neath a smiling Western sky; 
And upon her rich prairies. 

Where living springs of water pour, 



MINNESOTA lOI 

Our Minne has got room for nursing 

Twice as many babies more ; 
And in her lap there's wealth and glory, 

And Uncle Sam has promised more 
If she'll join the Federal Union, 

Pledge herself for evermore 
To sustain the mighty fabric 

Upon which our freedom rests. 
Then welcome, Minne, fairest daughter, 

Brightest star that gilds the West 1 

Brownsville, Minnesota, 1856. 



I02 MISCELLANEOUS. POEMS 



[Written for The IVestern Progress.^ 

LINES ADDRESSED TO WILD CAT BLUFF 
AND HER KINDRED HILLS. 

O ROCK-RIBBED hills, could you rehearse 

Your history in simple verse, 

Your stories of the olden time 

Might furnish food for thoughts sublime. 

Eternal monuments of old ! 

Stern witnesses of ages past ! 
How long have you stood sentinels 

In Summer's sun and Winter's blast ? 

Your lofty peaks, all bald with years, 
Point heavenward, where hopes and fears 
Are set at rest. The depths below 
The mysteries give of long ago. 
O mighty hills, I pray you say 

How many summer suns are past.f* 
How oft the flowers have died away, 

Chilled by the howling Autumn blast t 

How many lifeless forms at rest. 
With green grass growing on each breast ? 
How many, many graves grown cold, 
Containing secrets never told ? 

* Wild Cat Bluff is next to the highest point on the Upper Mississippi River. 



LINES ADDRESSED TO WILD CAT BLUFF IO3 

How many wild and thrilling scenes 
Upon your heights have taken place ? 

How many sweet poetic dreams 

Have found a birthplace at your base ? 

And Wild Cat Bluff, above the rest, 
I see your tall and snowy crest, 
While you keep by the river side 
God's record of the time and tide. 
I love your dreamy, silent way, 

I love your solitude to share; 
And had life but one hopeful day, 

I'd climb your heights and spend it there. 



1858. 



I04 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



GROWING OLD. 

Go, ask the crumbling hills, 
Where ancient rivers rolled : 

Who wrote upon their brows, 
" The world is growing old." 

Ask mountains and the deep 

How long they've hid their gold, 

And Ocean murmurs deep : 
Our secrets can't be told. 

Ask when the Grecian walls 
Were set in earthly mould. 

And ages answer back: 
The pages are too old. 

Ask what changes rent 

Old temples wrought with gold, 
And scars of countless years 

Say, time has grown too old. 



GROWING OLD IO5 

Then ask the mighty streams 

Which gambol to the sea, 
How long they've seaward rolled — 

No answer comes to me. 

But Nature teaches all 

What Heaven hath foretold, 
That all that's born of earth 

Must wither and grow old. 



1863. 



I06 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



REMINISCENCES OF EARLY DAYS. 

TowANDA, Towanda, sweet home of my childhood, 
Kind Memory still points to the log-cabin door, 
Which stands on your bank, 'neath the shade of 

that old buttonwood, 
Where we laughed and sang together in the days of 

yore. 
That rough, rude, homely cottage ! Oh, I never can 

foro^et 
'Twas the home of all my childish dreams so fresh 

in memory yet ; 
And when its sacred walls decay, and Time its 

mossy finger sets 
Her finale on that relic gray, oh, kindred thought 

will linger yet, 
And o'er the ruins drop a tear; 
For the dust of my father sleepeth here. 
No sculptured marble rears its head, nor slab nor 

stone reveals the name. 
Though far less brilliant lights than he are placed 

upon the list of fame. 
Here, Dartmouth, lies your honored son, 
Without an epitaph or stone ; 
Whose pen (fair Science's proud to own) 
Now lights the classic page of lore, 



REMINISCENCES OF EARLY DAYS IO7 

A living monument to him who sleeps upon 
Towanda's shore. 

fading scenes of youth and age, 
The mingled cup of joy and pain, 

1 have felt both, and fain would be 
A free and happy child again ! 
Ay, happy 'mid the festive scenes 

Of school-boy days this heart would be. 

As when we sang, all jubilant. 

And danced around the buttonwood tree; 

Where, o'er the meadow, on the sunny hillside, 

We dreamed of happier days in store. 

Where the blessings of Heaven crowned every head 

In the old log-house on Towanda's shore. 

There we used to sit at the festal board. 

With the loved ones of that mountain land, 

And mingle our songs of childish glee, 

Then all join hands round the buttonwood tree. 

Thrice happy days of early life, the brightest index 

of the past. 
Oases 'mid Sahara's waste, 
Lone verdant leaf on life's yellow tree ; 
Like a golden sheen your rainbow tints 
Reflect their light o'er the misty sea. 
As the faithful compass guides the bark, 
Till wrecked upon some foreign sea, 
I'll mind thee, still, my childhood's home. 
The old loQ^-house, 'neath the buttonwood tree. 

Brownsville, Minn., December, 1858. 



I08 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



'TIS NOT A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 

'Tis not a hundred years ago that Freedom's star 

arose, 
To teach the haughty tyrants that right and wrong 

are foes, 
That Earth is God's own footstool, and Eve our 

common mother. 
And men were ne'er created here to trample on 

each other; 

That all are pressed upon the tide, with power to 
rise or fall. 

And breathe the air of freedom that Heaven de- 
signed for all ; 

But an honest man should never bow to kings that 
lord the soil. 

For they are only tenants here, in common with us 
all. 

'Tis not a hundred years ago that Virtue frowned 

on Vice, 
But now they flirt together and Justice has her 

price ; 
And the man who will not shout and sing the 

follies of to-day 
Is not the man of the period, and his name must 

pass away. 



TIS NOT A HUNDRED YEARS AGO I09 

There was a time when States, Hke stars, had power 

of their own, 
And all revolved in harmony around one centre sun, 
But the Union ties were broken and we drifted out 

to sea, 
And never will return again till the good old States 

are free. 

Tis not a hundred years ago that white men ruled 

the land. 
But now the shades are darker and some are black 

and tanned ; 
But the people are all wiser and presidents are 

bigger. 
And the white man now must clear the way for the 

reconstructed " nigger." 

There was a time when monuments were never 
reared to shame, 

When Washington and Jefferson were on the list 
of fame. 

But men have lowered the standard since statesmen 
passed away, 

And who can see through coming years our coun- 
try's destiny ? 

1865. 



no MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



OLD PLYMOUTH ROCK TWO HUNDRED 
YEARS AND MORE AGO. 

The Hand that moves through time and space, 
As centuries go marching through, 

Unveiled the land that Heaven blessed, 
Two hundred years and more ago. 

And honored sons of other climes 
With noble hearts that knew no fear, 

Turned seaward from their native homes 
To plant eternal freedom here. 

They hovered 'round Old Plymouth Rock, 

Historic place, to memory dear, 
And praised the Hand that smoothed the waves. 

And the ship that brought them safely here. 

When gathered round their festal board 
They talked of scenes of other days, 

While Nature, in her laughing way, 

Sang sweet to the merry dancing waves. 



OLD PLYMOUTH ROCK I I I 

'Twas here the germs of freedom sprung, 
'Twas here the Nation's Hfe begun, — 

Oh, land of generations great, 

Which gave the world a Washington. 

Then hail, Virginia ! sacred spot, 

The land where memories brighter grow; 

The name of Washington will live 
As long as ages come and go. 



MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



HOW WELL DO I REMEMBER. 

How well do I remember 

The quiet, homely spot, 
The mountain and the river, 

My own dear father's cot ; 
The sighing winds of Autumn, 

The smiles of early morn. 
The hopeful days of boyhood. 

The spot where I was born. 

The whispering pines and evergreens, 

Beside the waterfall. 
Which shaded us in childhood, 

Are dear to memory, all. 
The winding path, the meadow. 

The grave beside the hill — 
Oh, the happy playground of my youth, 

I love your memory still. 

I love your hills and valleys, 

The river's gentle flow, 
The beech and the maple woodland, 

And the days of long ago ; 
But the dearest spot on earth to me 

Is down by the shady nook 
Where the cottage of my father stood 

By the side of the mountain brook. 



HOW WELL DO I REMEMBER II3 

May Heaven guard the dear old spot, 

And Memory oft recall 
The cherished scenes of childhood, 

Which linger one and all, 
Like the fading rays of sunset 

In that far-off mountain land, 
Where sleep beneath the waving pines 

The loved of our kindred band. 

Oh ! gently wave the evergreens, 

Play softly with the breeze. 
And Earth keep holy silence 

While Autumn's withered leaves 
Fall lightly as the snowfiakes, 

While Nature's fond embrace 
Entombs the faded emblems 

O'er that consecrated place. 



114 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



THE RUINED HOME. 



In front of my dear old home, 

From the branch of an aged tree, 

The voice of a happy bird 
Wakes memories dear to me. 



Thoughts of all I have loved 

In the years that have gone before 

Come back like the restless waves 
That break on the ocean shore. 

Ill 

Now the tree is seamed with years 
And its boughs begin to fall ; 

Its leaves are scattered and dead, 
And such is the fate of all. 

IV 

And voices long stilled by death 
Now come from beyond the sea. 

To call me away from my cares to-day 
When the leaves were full on the tree. 



THE RUINED HOME II5 



Ah, Time ! thou hast made us all 

To struggle against the tide. 
How long must I stay ere I drift away 

To the peace of the other side ? 

VI 

I turn from my ruined home, 

I turn from the aged tree, 
And I muse alone, for the bird has flown, 

But the memories dwell with me. 



Il6 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



CHRISTMAS GIFT TO HIS WIFE, GERALDINE. 

Oh, Geraldine, when first we met, to link our fate 
together, 

We signed and sealed a solemn vow that none on 
earth should sever; 

And thus we've journeyed, hand in hand, full twenty 
years or more, 

And sidfe by side we'll struggle on until our jour- 
ney's o'er. 

We'll cast no ling'ring look behind, or breathe a 

fruitless sigh ; 
Together clinging we shall moor all safely by and 

Then welcome smiles of other days, sweet mem'ries 

of the past, 
But bury deep the bitter part which chills like 

Autumn's blast. 

Oh, banish all the checkered page which brings to 
us regret. 

That we may oft renew the pledge, so fresh in mem- 
ory yet ; 

And give us cheer to glide along; 'twill smooth 
life's rufBed sea; 

The " land of leal " has rest for all, and home for 
you and me. 
Brownsville, Minnesota, 1868, 




O. W. 5TREETER. 
Taken m 1895. 



SHALL IRELAND BE FREE II7 



SHALL IRELAND BE FREE? 

The following poem, which first appeared in the Western Progress, 
a paper printed and published at Brownsville, Minn., in 1870, and sub- 
sequently selected and read by Governor Austin, at the conclusion of 
his speech delivered in the city of St. Paul, on St. Patrick's Day, the 
seventeenth day of March, 1870, and published in the St. Paul 
Daily Dispatch of the same date as a part of the same, is from the 
pen of O. W. Streeter. — E. D. Comer. 

Tyrants and fools inherit thrones 

From accidental birth, 
And wield their ill-begotten power 

O'er millions on God's earth, 
Oppress the weak of every clime 

And starve the poor at home, 
But write of Christian charity 

Beneath some gilded dome. 

They shout that Britain rules the wave 

And lords it o'er the sea; 
They sing the song they've sung so long 

Of British hberty! 
When there, in sight of Britain's throne. 

Lies, circled by the sea. 
Poor Ireland, whose noble sons 

Are struggling to be free. 



Il8 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 

On, battle on, your cause is just; 

No longer bow the knee ; 
In God and Heaven put your trust, 

And Ireland shall be free ! 
Then touch the Irish harp once more, 

And swell your native strain, 
And wake the shackled millions up 

To Freedom's cause again ; 
'Twill move the Irish heart to shout 

With songs of ancient glee. 
And Britain shall no longer rule 

That Eden of the sea. 

Sweet vale where Shannon rolls to kiss 

The tide on Erin's shore. 
Your scenes are dear to Irish heart 

As in the days of yore. 
Take cheer, O Erin's noble sons ! 

Like brothers we will stand, 
Until the shamrock proudly waves 

O'er all our native land. 
Then gather round the sea-born isle, 

The home of patriot sires. 
So dear to every exiled son 

Whom Freedom's love inspires. 
We ne'er shall rest till o'er that vale 

Encircled by the sea. 
Like Stars and Stripes, the shamrock waves, 

An emblem of the free. 
1870. 



THE soul's farewell TO THE BODY 11 9 



THE SOUL'S FAREWELL TO THE BODY. 

Companion, kindred, earthly shade, 
Joint heir of all which grieves the heart, 
We met when Heaven smiled on both, 
Linked Hope with Fate to live and part ; 
'Twas long before the infant smiled. 
Or mother pressed her darling child. 
E'en Eden's beauty was divine 
When life immortal breathed in thine. 

And on through mists of changing years 
We've shared each other's smiles and tears, 
Till cheeks, like roses once in bloom. 
Wear faded blossoms for the tomb. 
But like two withered buds still cling, 
Too old to blush on earth again. 
The crimson streams that warm the heart 
Move cold and slow through every part, 
And soon, too soon, they'll cease to flow. 
And mingle, dust with dust, below. 

And days and years are freely given. 
Yet thousands miss the way to Heaven. 

But, lo ! when thought conceived the plan 
Of giving years of life to man. 



120 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 

Strange parts combined to form the whole, 
And man became a hving soul. 
.But endless conflicts rose within, 
And Saint became the Child of Sin; 
But not from choice or power his own, 
For naught but good on Earth was known, 
And Evil had no birth or brood, 
For God pronounced His work all good. 

Suppose that Eve, when life begun 
Had not been told the tree to shun, 
Would she have dragged poor Adam 'round 
Until the fatal spot was found? 
If so, sin came with Adam's birth, 
Commissioned here to scourge the earth : 
And how in this appointed hour 
Could man resist the greater power } 

Unhappy Eden ! wretched place. 
To risk the hopes of all our race. 
In such a wicked place as this 
Where devils lurk and serpents hiss. 

But all such speculative thought 

Is more or less with mischief fraught, 

And all our feeble efforts here 

Should keep within their mortal sphere — 

For Man can never comprehend 

His own Creation, Being, End; 



THE SOUL S FAREWELL TO THE BODY 1 2 1 

But hope and promise of to-day 
Sheds Hght beyond antiquity, 
And all the discord here and there 
Is harmonized with Faith and Prayer. 

So let it be with you and me, 

Till Time unfolds our destiny : 

And as we've marched with Time together, 

Oft contending with each other, 

In peace I trust we'll reach the shore 

Where millions rest who've gone before ; 

For now I feel the time draws near 

When we must drop the parting tear. 

Poor, aged, careworn tent of clay. 
Too frail to last another day, 
Farewell ! The time has come to part. 
To dust return, for dust thou art. 
And whatsoe'er your fate may be, 
The future will reveal to me. 



122 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



THE FALL OF MAN. 

When slumbering Nature woke and light from 

darkness sprung, 
And worlds bes^an their race to circle round the 

sun, 
God planted Eden east, with trees and flowers rare, 
And when the work was done He placed His chil- 
dren there. 
But 'mong the garden trees two were fair and rife — 
One had poison fruit, the other germs of life. 
Here Eve and Adam walked, two happy souls in 

one. 
Among the garden trees where destiny was hung, 
Till shades of night grew dim, where golden 

shadows fall 
Around the chosen spot where two did eat for all. 
And when they'd tasted fruit from every tree but 

one, 
The Serpent smiled and said, " The fairest you have 

shunned." 
But Eve rebuked the wretch with quick and firm 

reply, 
" God said if we do eat, that we must surely die." 
To which the Serpent said, " Go count the grains 

of sand 



THE FALL OF MAN 1 23 

And you shall know a life in Eden's holy land ; 
And if you'd like to share the glory here with me, 
Go eat the golden fruit and you shall know and see. 
For long I've reigned supreme, and all that's here 

is mine ; 
I taught the trees to bloom, the sun on worlds to 

shine ; 
I fashioned all the flowers that lend their beauty 

sweet; 
And all that blossoms here was made for us to eat. 
My power extends on earth to every land and sea, 
And brooks leap out of bed to sing their songs to 

me. 
The forest humbly bows, and waves that kiss the 

shore 
All shout to my domain, and echo sings it o'er. 
But what's a life to man if linked to cruel fate ? 
Or wisdom, shunned by all, when ignorance is 

great ? " 
Then Adam said to Eve, " O'er all this land and 

sea 
No power hath He given except to you and me ; 
And whence the Evil One that lurks beneath a 

smile. 
To rob our Eden home and innocence beguile ? 
Who talks of other worlds which some will never 

see, 
Where time and space are full of God's immensity; 
And worlds have never ceased to whirl in endless 

space 



124 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 

In harmony with time, the cosmos and with space. 
He shouts his rebel songs beneath the holy shade, 
And reads from ancient books that worlds were 

never made ; 
Talks of other lands, with brighter sun and sky, 
Where he was chief of saints and next to God on 

high ; 
He claims the power above to rule the world below. 
And all who follow him the mystery shall know; 
But when from dust we came and two made only 

one. 
There was no discord here — no evil had been 

done. 
You smile with heavenly grace to hear that Evil One 
Who seeks by art and words to drive us from our 

home ; 
When all that grows on earth was blessed for you 

and me. 
Except the mystic fruit which grows on yonder tree. 
Oh, let the evil pass and keep the good command, 
And we shall live in peace in Eden's holy land." 
But pure and modest Eve had more desires than 

one 
And often walked alone to view the garden home ; 
Where o'er the flowery vale no object met her eyes 
So fair as Eden's tree, that blossomed in disguise. 
And ere the gentle dew had reared the drooping 

flowers. 
Good Adam and his wife were playing 'mong the 

bowers, 



THE FALL OF MAN 1.2 5 

And when beneath the tree that waved its fruit so 

fair, 
Eve smiled and said to him, " How beautiful they 

are! 
But how came good and ill to have one mother 

tree, 
And wisdom hidden here from you as well as me ? " 
Then sparkling eyes grew bright as from the bend- 
ing limb 
She plucked the fairest fruit and ate and gave to 

him. 
When both had touched and eaten, they knew and 

were afraid. 
And hid themselves away in Eden's deepest shade. 
And while they sought for peace and pardon on 

their knees, 
They heard a voice they knew among the garden 

trees. 
'Twas God, who gave them power o'er every beast 

and bird, 
Calling Adam home, who trembled when he heard 
That man was doomed to die ; no future promise 

given ; . 
That Paradise was lost, and dark the way to Heaven. 
Then all were gathered home and stood there face 

to face — 
Eve, Adam and the Imp — the worst of all the race. 
The Serpent made his bow, but sentence on him 

passed. 
Our Mother Eve confessed and Adam was the last. 



126 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 

'Twas in that darkest hour poor Adam rose to tell 
The story of his wrongs, for loving Eve too well. 
But out of Eden's bower He turned them one and 

all, 
And closed that golden gate, because of Adam's 

fall. 
And ages have grown old since o'er the ancient 

wall 
A star rose in the East to light the way for all ; 
And may it never set till all shall love and see 
The Paradise of God, where time's eternity. 

Superior, Wis., 1892. 



SONG OF THE CREOLE MAID 12/ 



SONG OF THE CREOLE MAID. 

I LONG to breathe the air again 

That floats so soft and free 
Among the fragrant orange groves 

Which often sheltered me. 

Where memories treasured long ago 

Have lived to know us free, 
And father's dear old cottage home 

Looks out upon the sea. 

Where pebbles shine beneath the waves 
Which break upon the shore ; 

And memory brightens as it turns 
Its pages o'er and o'er. 

I long to hear the Creole's song — 

It hath a sweeter strain, 
That fills the hearts of dark-eyed maids 

With thoughts of home again. 

O land of flowers and everglades, 

I long to dwell with thee ; 
Fair queen of all God's fruitful lands, 

And Edens of the sea! 



128 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 

How oft I've trod your sacred halls, 
Where saints and sisters dwell, 

And wear to-day the cross they bear, 
Inscribed to thee — Farewell ! 

Where Nature weaves no icy chains 
To hush the murmuring streams. 

Or sio^hins: winds of Northern climes 
Disturb our happy dreams. 

But where the vine-clad hummocks rise 
I'd breathe the air now free. 

For all my fondest hopes still live, 
Sweet land of flowers, in thee. 

And though an exile from my home, 

A voice still calls to me: 
Come back, come back, my Creole child. 

To the cottage by the sea. 



SOMETHING STRANGE IN SMALL EVENTS 1 29 



THERE'S SOMETHING STRANGE IN SMALL 
EVENTS. 

There's something strange in small events, 

Which rear to public fame 
The man who ne'er had common sense, 

Or even an honest name ; 
But fortune seems a stepping-stone 

For public thieves to climb, 
With meek and hungry followers. 

Who worship at their shrine. 

And thus the world is dashing on, 

And whether right or wrong. 
The accidental knave or fool 

Is sure to wear the crown ; 
He never wants for capital, 

For in his comely face 
The world beholds the perfect man 

Of impudence and grace ; 
And whether life is rough or smooth, 

'Tis all the same to Si, 
For when he plays the deuce to win 

He holds the ace for high. 



130 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 

They'll cheat the poor and give the rich, 

And go to church and sing, 
And look as innocent as saints 

Who never stole a thing. 
They're always liberal when it pays, 

But seldom give the poor ; 
And thousands who 2^0 besfSfinCT bread 

Turn empty from their door. 
They've always something cheap to say 

About their fellow man, 
For nothing good could emanate 

From such a wicked clan. 

They're grouped at every corner place, 

On every public street, 
And poke their ugly nose and face 

At every one they meet. 
If ladies chance to pass that way. 

The roughs are always there 
To greet them with a loathsome grin 
. And low, insulting stare. 
Thus modern gents forget the debt 

They owe to human kind. 
And must forget their mothers were 

All women, good and kind. 

And here's a moral in these lines, 

A lesson good and true : 
Just do to others as you would 

Have others do to you. 



TO HIS BRIDGET IN THE STATES 



TO HIS BRIDGET IN THE STATES. 

I've traveled over all the States, 

And Territories, too. 
But haven't seen a single one 

Who looked a bit like you ; 
And if by chance I make a raise, 

I know what I will do — 
Just keep the little wires hot 

'Till Jasper sends you through. 

The diggings here have petered out, 

And things are very blue. 
But gold is plenty in the hills 

If half I hear is true; 
And Jim has just come down from there 

And put me in a stew. 
To pack my mule with tent and traps 

And go for something new. 

Perhaps I'd better wait awhile, 

For all may not be true, 
And if I do conclude to go, 

Just telegraph to you. 



132 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 

I haven't made but little yet, 
Except my board and clothes, 

And every day my eyes stick out 
To see how money goes. 

I thought I'd get an office here, 

Or I should never come; 
But found the people all as sharp 

As we have got at home. 
There's now and then a lucky chap 

Who cuts an awful swell — 
Comes in to crowd another out 

And pulls the wires well. 

But I hain't got the yellow stuff 

Or quite the face to win, 
And think I'd better give it up 

And let the rest pitch in. 
They tell me when we're naturalized 

We're just as good out here 
As those who have been scratching 'round 

For ten or twenty years. 

But I'll not mind these little jokes; 

I'll hoe my row clean through. 
And if I strike a golden streak, 

I'll send a train for you. 

Hardscrabble, Pacific Coast, March 14, 1S73. 



DONT TAKE SALLIE AWAY 1 33 



DON'T TAKE SALLIE AWAY! 

Now, Joe, you can come when you please, 
You'll always be welcome to stay. 

If you don't whisper lies in her ears 
And try to get Sallie away. 

She's all that dear Heaven has left. 
Save memories which brighten to-day ; 

Then, come, and go home when you please, 
But Sallie shall never go 'way. 

She's a picture of womanly love. 
That never stepped out of the way ; 

Her heart is as warm as the sun 
And pure as a heavenly ray. 

She cards and spins all the wool. 

And plays with the shuttle and loom; 

And Nature has painted her cheeks 
As fair as the roses of June. 

Her dress is the linsey she weaves, 
With everyday shoes on her feet ; 

And when she gets ready for church 
She always looks handsome and neat. 



34 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 

She's always contented at home, 
But Ufe has no lease for a day ; 

So, come, and go home when you please, 
But Sallie shall never go 'way. 

She's all the fair copy on earth. 

Save one that hangs over the loom, 

Of Nancy, whose memory we love. 
Around the old family home. 

Then, come, whenever you please, 
If you and the girl can agree, 

And have a good part of the land, 
To look after Sallie and me. 

Says Joe : You will surely be blessed 
For making us happy to-day; 

And here is the pledge of my word 
That Sallie shall never go 'way. 

Then doors opened wide to the hall, 
And Justice, with papers in hand. 

Said : Joe, do- you promise to wed ? — 
Yes, 'Squire, with the houses and land. 

Now Joe says that Earth is all Eden, 
With clover knee-deep all the way ; 

That he loves the old farm and his Sallie, 
And never intends to go 'way. 

Walla Walla, January 9, 1873. 



KATES BOOBY-BOO I 35 



KATE'S BOOBY-BOO. 
Booby : 

" Jaunting little feet 

Too small for number two ; 
Eyes black as jet, 

And pretty ankles, too: 
Romping in the clover, 

Among the shady trees, 
Just a pretty size 

To make a man a squeeze." 

Kate: 

" Hold your silly tongue. 
You great booby-boo ! 
Think that I would say a word 

To such a fool as you ? 
With fingers long as pot hooks, 

Nose and eyes askew, 
Legs small as pipe stems, 
And then you stutter, too." 



BoOBY 



You make such little tracks 
When you flirt upon the walk, 

And your happy little tongue — 
How it flatters when you talk. 



136 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 

And Pattie says she knows 
You are eighteen to-day ; 

Now tell, you little rogue, 

What you really want to say." 



Kate; 



I want to have you leave us. 

And call another day, 
While we celebrate our childhood 

Around the Queen of May. 
For love will die of hunger 

Amid the desert plain. 
And hearts which have been frozen 

Can never love aorain." 



Booby 



" Oh, Katy, don't be cruel, 

I've love enough for two. 
And a cottage by the river 

All fitted up for you. 
It matters not how dark the face 

Is shaded by the sun, 
And brawny fingers only show 

What honest toil has done. 

" 'Tis toiHng sons who've made us great 

O'er every land and sea, 
And they were first to raise their arms 
To make our country free, 



KATES BOOBY-BOO I 37 

Then never scorn the farmers' boys, 
They're sovereigns of the land; 

And here is one who offers you 
An honest heart and hand." 

Kate: 

" Well, Jake, if father don't object, 
I'll give the same to you." 



Now, Kate is happy in her cot, 
And so is Booby-boo. 



138 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. 

'TwAS a beautiful eve, and November had strewn 
The earth with her withered and dead, 

And a sorrowful look covered mountain and brook, 
For Springtime and Summer had fled. 

And a feeling of sadness, embittered with years. 
That none but the hearts which feel know. 

Came gliding along, like a wreck of the storm, 
Through scenes where I passed long ago. 

And I heard in the distance a voice which I knew 
Saying, " Stay there no longer alone ; 

For hearts that once mingled with kindred below 
Are waiting to welcome you home." 

In silence I stood on the border of time, 
And wondered if this were a dream ; 

When I heard voices sweet the story repeat. 
As I stood on the bank of the stream. 

And I turned toward the spot where the echo still 
rung. 

For it seemed like a heavenly strain ; 
And I saw the loved forms that warbled so sweet. 

All happy with childhood again. 



THE LIVING AND THE DEAD 1 39 

But the heart was too full to utter its joy, 
Like the stream when it leaps from its bed, 

As I stood face to face with the loved ones at home, 
That I'd thought were all missing or dead. 

And we talked of our meeting, of childhood, of 
home. 
Of the happy days coming and gone, 
Till the curtain was dropped betwixt Heaven and 
me; 
And again I must journey alone. 

Waverley Magazine, February 10, 1879. 



140 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



"MAN WAS MADE TO MOURN." 

It may seem strange that such as I 
Should differ from a source so high, 
But still I deem the act no crime, 
And with my common homespun rhyme 
Will venture, though it spoil my song, 
To say that Bob was in the wrong. 

When themes like this great minds control, 
What compass guides the weary soul ? 
Hope cannot penetrate the gloom 
Or lend one cheer to light the tomb ; 
God's inspiration could no credence find, 
For all is lost and reason goes it blind. 

When time began its record here 

Of all the human race. 

Two happier souls were never born 

Than those who fell from grace ; 

They laughed and sang in Eden's bowers, 

At eve and early morn, 

But never dreamed in Paradise 

That man was made to mourn. 



"man was made to mourn" 141 

'Twas here when all was beautiful 
And Eden was in bloom, 
That Eve and Adam courted 
And spent their honeymoon. 
They were the first celestials 
That ever came to earth ; 
And only distant relatives 
That had no mortal birth. 

'Tis true that Adam slipped and fell 
For trusting Eve, he loved so well ; 
But was there no injunction made 
For man to choose the better part, 
No faculty of mind or soul 
To reason with the crying heart? 

I answer, " Yes, that secret power 
Whose inspiration moves us all 
Knows best the miseries of man 
Are subject to His own control." 

Then surely Rob did take this flight, 
When fancy erred with all its might, 
For reason could na been his guide 
When thus he sung and did decide 
That man is doomed, or ever was, 
To mourn throuo^h life without a cause. 



1883. 



142 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



WHY DO YOU CALL ME OLD? 

The soul is as young and as fair to-day 
As it was when it entered this temple of clay, 
And the countless ages which time has spun 
Are only dots, for the years are one. 

The soul may grow weary and restless here, 
Dreaming of life in that beautiful sphere 
Where boundless creations His wisdom unfold, 
But eternity's pages have never grown old. 

Then call me not aged, where life is divine, 
For worlds keep no record, neither does time ; 
And life that is flowing from fountain to soul 
Is eternal, and how can it ever grow old ? 

But the crumbling old tents, all wrinkled and gray, 
With halls all deserted, must yield to decay ; 
And the dust ever sacred in turn made to yield 
Old clay to remould, in the old Potter's field. 

No power that's mortal can ever control 
The laws of our being, for God is the soul ; 
And hearts which love truly are pure and as free 
As the ruffles that whiten the waves of the sea. 



WHY DO YOU CALL ME OLD 1 43 

And ages unnumbered His truth has foretold 
That life is immortal and never grows old ; 
Then cheer up, my friend, like brothers we'll stand. 
To meet as we part ; so give me your hand. 

Caledonia, Minn., July 27, 1884. 



144 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



MY OLD DOG, "NED." 

No more will he follow the coveys 

Through stubble and sweet scented corn, 

Or wake at the call of the hunter 

When he sounds the whistle or horn. 



No more will he circle the prairies 
In mid-Summer, Autumn or Spring, 

To find a lone bird or a covey. 

For the hunter to shoot on the wing. 

No more through the highlands and valleys, 
Where oft he grew weary and sore. 

While hunting the grouse and the pheasant, 
Will he ever be heard any more. 

For he sleeps like a veteran and soldier, 
With a name that is free from a blot, 

And will live in the mem'ry of hundreds 
When millions of men are forgot. 



MY OLD DOG, "NED " 14c 

More gifted and true to his calling 

Than half of the world of mankind, 
He never betrayed real friendship, 
. But always was truthful and kind. 

But he's dead, and we buried him kindly 
Where flowers bend over his tomb, 

And he's gone to a boundless prairie 
Where the dogs will all have a home. 



146 ^ MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



THE LEAVES ARE FALLING. 

One by one the faded leaves, 

Like whirling flakes that winters sow, 
Are dropping here and dropping there — 

Thus generations come and go. 

One by one the faded leaves 

That, homeless, drift with wind and rain 
Have left the poor old mother oaks 

To mourn till Springtime comes again. 

One by one the faded leaves, 

Which looked so fair and bright in May, 
Have passed from fluttering days of youth 

To Autumn's sober, dreamy way. 

One by one we come and go, 

Like leaves, that serve their time and fall, 
No matter whether high or low, 

For Nature's God is God of all. 



1885. 



BE KIND TO ALL 1 47 



BE KIND TO ALL. 

Why should men ever wrangle here 
And strive to wrong each other, 

When God hath said that we should love 
Our neighbor as our brother ? 

Why should they lord it o'er the earth, 
When thousands have no bread. 

And tramp beneath their wicked feet 
The memories of the dead ? 

They wield their ill-begotten power 

Against their fellow man. 
When all have been provided for 

By one parental hand. 

Why claim that some are chosen here 

To rise when others fall, 
When Adam did his very best. 

But Satan got us all ? 

Then all who have no hio-her aim 
Than wealth and rogues to honor, 

Beware ! for Justice has an eye 
On every hole and corner. 

Washington, October, 1885. 



148 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



OUR NATIONAL MONUMENT. 

Oh, sacred dome, where freedom clings, 
And nations bow as well as kings, 
When worlds grow old and history gray, 
And monuments have passed away. 
The sons of freedom yet unborn 
Will shout the name of Washington. 

And temples reared to kiss the sky. 
Where living memories never die. 
Are only miraged shades of thought 
That freedom has so dearly bought. 
And while that grand historic wall 
May answer nations when they call, 
'Twill ne'er divert that human sea 
Who love the dust that made us free. 

And onward, with the march of time, 
The world will worship at the shrine 
Where liberty was born to bloom. 
And shed its lustre o'er the tomb 
Of our immortal Washington. 



1885. 



MEMORIES DEAR TO ME 1 49 



MEMORIES DEAR TO ME. 

Where the floods of countless ages 
Have been turning o'er and o'er 

The golden sands that glitter 

From the mountain to the shore ; 

O'er the sea-washed hills and valleys, 
Where Nature hides her gold, 

With the secrets of eternal years 
That never can be told. 

Where the ragged old Sierras, 
With towering peaks of snow, 

Look down like mountain monarchs 
On the smiling vales below. 

And wave meets kindred wave, 
As it rolls from shore to shore, 

To kiss and part, and mingle 
With the millions Q^one before. 

Where the father of all rivers 
That goes singing to the sea. 

With the little brooks which feed it, 
Have their memories dear to me. 



50 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 

There thoughts and dreams still linger, 
Up and down the little stream, 

Where I met and learned to love her — 
My Httle Geraldine. 

Near the banks of that same river 
And the streams which ever flow, 

We have lived and are still living 
Since those days of long ago. 

Washington, D. C, August, 1885. 



DEADWOOD GULCH I5: 



DEADWOOD GULCH. 

Historic gulch, by ages washed 

With mountain streams, freighted with gold 
From where God's richest treasures lay, 

Whose secrets time has never told : 

I love your sober, thoughtful heights. 
The pines that hug the mountain side ; 

I love the click of the miner's pick, 

That echoes through your valleys wide. 

I love the solitude that reigns 

Where Nature sinQ^s her music sweet; 

I love the frowning rock-ribbed hills. 
And brooks which murmur at their feet. 

I love to breathe the mountain air 

That gently whispers 'mong your pines ; 

Love all your wild and thrilling scenes, 
That wake in memory youthful dreams. 

DEADWOOD, D. T., May, 1886. 



152 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



OUR WILLIE IS COMING HOME. 

[The Author's Son.] 

Oh, Willie ! we've watched and we've waited 
To welcome you back to the spot 

Where the scenes of your boyhood still linger, 
With memories never forgot. 

Where rivers as pure as the Lethe 

Flow smoothly on every side, 
And trout brooks are lost in the race 

With waters which flow to the tide. 

Where the prairies are dotted with mounds, 
Like the moles on a beautiful face. 

And the valleys lock arms with the sea, 
Where the rivers unite and embrace. 

Where the deep-worn trails of the red man 
Still wind through the niches and vales, 

With secrets all buried forever 
Where time never tells any tales. 

Where the sickle of time has been reaping 
In the fields of November and May, 

Clipping the buds and the blossoms 
As well as the old and the gray. 



OUR WILLIE IS COMING HOME 1 53 

Where the new-made hillocks are shrouded 

With waves of the drifting snow, 
And Springtime has scattered its flowers 

O'er the graves of many you know. 

Where kindred are watching and waiting 
With many old friends whom we know, 

To welcome you back to the spot 

Where you lived when a boy, long ago. 



154 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



SHALL WE KNOW OUR FRIENDS AND 
KINDRED THERE? 

It cannot be that death destroys 
The memory of all earthly ties, 
That all discriminating power 
Is lost forever in the grave; 
That we shall never meet, and speak, 
Beyond the silent, tented field, 
And, knowing, press the kindred lips 
And hands we've often pressed before ; 
That 'mong the happy millions there 
No well-known voice will greet our ears ; 
And memory but a mortal part. 
To keep our earthly record here. 

Alas ! such thoughts too oft invade 
The minds of doubtful mortals here, 
And shattered reason oft prevents 
What truth a«d justice make so clear. 

But Heaven clears the sky above us, 
Binding memory to the soul ; 
Then how can that which is immortal 
Perish here, without the whole ? 



SHALL WE KNOW 1 55 

Reason answers: Never, never; 
Memory is the gift of God, 
And through the everlasting ages 
It will live beyond the sod. 

Caledonia, Minn., March 14, 1887. 



156 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



DONNELLY VERSUS INGERSOLL. 

Why can't the " Sage of Nininger " 

Convert Bob IngersoU? 
Because he has not got the brain 

And his shadow is too small. 

Why can't the little Baconite, 

Who gophers underground, 
Show something more than he has shown, 

To prove what he has found ? 

He's raked the bottom of the sea. 

Turned pages o'er and o'er, 
Found cities buried 'neath the wave. 

And bards unknown before. 

And now, mid Avon's classic fields, 

Where Time's immortal son 
Drank deep from living fountains. 

For millions yet to come. 

We find the Sas^e of Nininger, 
On driving wheels of thought, 

Exploring ancient wonders. 

And ciphering with his oughts. 



DONNELLY VERSUS INGERSOLL 1 57 

But who can give to Bacon 

What Shakespeare wrote for all ? 
'Tis not the Sage of Nininger — 

His shadow is too small. 



And long as ages come and go, 



And rivers kiss the sea, 
His pages will grow brighter 
Through all Eternity. 



158 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



OUR CHILDHOOD'S HOME. 

The old log house has fallen down, 

The place is old and bare, 
There's nothing looks as it used to look 

When our father's home was there. 

The creeping vines and flowers are dead. 
The spring has ceased to flow ; 

There is nothing left of the good old home 
Of sixty years ago. 

The apple trees have rotted down, 
The fields look worn and gray. 

And all we loved and cherished there 
With the years have passed away. 

The hills and vales look older now, 
The streams move still and slow. 

And time has wrecked the good old home 
Of sixty years ago. 

The towering peaks and mossy beds, 
The deep-worn paths we knew, 

The aged pines which overhung 

The brooks that murmured through, 

Are all as fresh in memory yet 
As when the world looked new. 



OUR MINNIE WILL NEVER RETURN 1 59 



OUR MINNIE WILL NEVER RETURN. 

Our Minnie has gone, and we're drifting alone, 

Like a storm-beaten wreck on the sea; 

For the angels from Heaven rowed the boat away. 

And our beautiful Minnie has gone. 

And we're left like a shrub in the desert 

To wither and die all alone ; 

For we've watched and waited on the evergreen 

shore 
For the boat that was spirited away. 
But nothing is seen on the rock-bound coast, 
Not a sail in sight on the sea 
That will ever return that little boat, 
Or my Minnie back to me. 

Brooklyn, N. Y., January i, 1896. 



l60 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



DON'T FORGET THE MAINE. 



Awake, ye sons of liberty, 
Our country calls again. 

Her flag has been insulted ! 
And don't forget the Maine. 



'Tis thirty-seven years ago 
We answered to the call, 

And round the old familiar flag 
We gathered, one and all. 

Now Justice and Humanity 
With Freedom call again ; 

Awake, ye sons of Hberty, 
And don't forget the Maine. 

We'll shoulder arms and knapsacks. 
With canteens by our side. 

And off with the boys for Cuba, 
Whatever fate betide. 



DONT FORGET THE MAINE l6l 

But ne'er forget the fated spot 

Where Justice calls in vain 
For the Spanish wretch who planted death — 

And don't forget the Maine. 

While ages keep their records bright, 

And memory does the same, 
Our country never can forget 

The -history of the Maine. 

Superior, Wis., May i, 1898. 



APPENDIX 



[The following pages have been added to this interesting volume because 
of the historical value of the personal letters of Gen. James Shields to 
Judge Streeter, and to give the reading public a truthful account of the Bat- 
tle of Winchester. As Judge Streeter participated in that famous contest- 
at-arms as a member of General Shields's staff, he is qualified in an excep- 
tional degree to speak with authority concerning that engagement. 

The sketch of the battle is followed by a tribute to the life and character 
of General Shields, written by Judge Streeter at the time of the transition 
of the hero-statesman. Next in order comes the series of letters written by 
General Shields to Judge Streeter from 1857 to 1879. These letters are in- 
teresting in the light of history, and prove that the ties of friendship, when 
once truly formed, are never broken by the flight of time, nor by separation 
in miles, nor by even so-called death. All of the following pages are pub- 
lished without change, obeying only the necessary rules of syntax. — Ed.] 

A TRUE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF WIN- 
CHESTER. 

A TRUE Statement of the Battle of Winchester, either from 
ignorance or prejudice, has never been given, as the writer, who 
was present, knows. The battle was fought about three-quar- 
ters of a mile somh of the city of Winchester, in an old past- 
ure on the west side of the Pike. The field was over a half 
mile long, divided in the centre by a ravine, with a grove of sec- 
ond growth of timber in the northwest corner. Here the two 
armies met, Shields on the north side of the ravine, Jackson 
on the south. The first stragetic move was made by Jackson, 
who attempted to flank Shields by getting possession of the 
grove, but was checked and driven back by Shields's artillery. 



1 64 APPENDIX 

Then face to face the battle commenced and grew hotter and 
hotter, when Shields, fearing that his men might break ranks, 
rushed out where the balls were flying as thick as hailstones 
and swinging the Stars and Stripes cheered his soldiers, who 
closed in upon the enemy until Jackson fell back in retreat. 
In the meantime a shell had struck Shields and fractured his 
left arm, which he concealed with his cloak, but upon seeing 
Jackson's retreat, the loss of blood from the painful wound left 
him so weak that he had to be carried from the field. 

After the great battle, Shields's headquarters were changed 
to New Market, Va., where he remained until ordered to the 
Rappahannock to reinforce McDowell, and on the very day that 
Shields left New Market, the writer left in a Government am- 
bulance with dispatches for the War Department. Our jour- 
ney from New Market to Winchester was harassed by the 
music of bullets, and finally we were met with bayonets at a 
crossing and the password demanded. Neither of us could 
give it, but asked for the commanding officer, who came to our 
relief ; for, after presenting him with our budget, marked and 
directed to the " War Department, Shields's Division " (care 
of writer), we were given the password, told not to forget it 
again, and, with a fresh horse, were sent on our way rejoicing. 

We reached Winchester about 6 a. m. Took passage on the 
old flat strap railroad, the only line between Winchester and 
Harper's Ferry. Unfortunately upon reaching Charleston, 
the little bumblebee train left the track and rolled down the 
bank about twenty feet, near the spot where John Brown was 
hanged. No one was hurt and the little bumblebee was soon 
replaced in good standing on the track. The little engine, 
pufhng like a German at his pipe, made from five to six miles 
an hour for Harper's Ferry, where we arrived in due time, but 
too late for the Baltimore & Ohio train for Washington. We 
had to wait for the next train, but before it arrived, Banks's re- 
treating army, had reached the top of the hill above Harper's 
Ferry with Jackson close in his rear. Before the armies 
reached the bottom of the hill our train arrived and pulled 



APPENDIX 165 

out ; the losses in Banks's retreat were very large, but the 
number will never be known. 

We reached Washington late, but in time to deliver our mes- 
sage to the War Department. The city was wild with excite- 
ment. Pennsylvania Avenue was crowded from the Capitol to 
the White House. 

Every man, woman and child who could carry a gun was on 
the warpath, all looking for Jackson, expecting that he would 
continue his march from Harper's Ferry into Washington, 
which he could have done at that time with very little opposi- 
tion. 

General Shields had been promoted by President Lincoln 
from brigadier-general to major-general after his great victory 
over Stonewall Jackson at Winchester, and was waiting confir- 
mation by the United States Senate. The writer was requested 
to look after the interests of General Shields on his arrival in 
Washington, which he did. Senator Rice, General Shields's 
Democratic friend from Minnesota, was sick and confined to 
his bed, and Morton S. Wilkinson, the Republican senator 
from Minnesota, the personal and political enemy of General 
Shields, was opposed to his confirmation. Under such an un- 
favorable outlook, the writer telegraphed for Gen. Shields, who 
arrived too late, for Wilkinson had planned his defeat. To 
compass his purpose, the Senate, on motion, went into execu- 
tive session, where no defence can be made. The members 
were surprised when Shields's name came up for confirma- 
tion at the statement that the great general was crazy, which 
falsehood defeated his confirmation. 

When President Lincoln learned that Shields was rejected 
on the ground of insanity, he said, " I would like to have a few 
more such crazy generals," and offered to reappoint Shields, 
feeling that the Senate would not reject him, for it had 
learned that the story was false and without the least founda- 
tion. The old general's feelings were hurt by his treatment by 
the Senate, after making such a brilliant record in the Mexican 
War, where he earned the rank of major-general, and defeating 



1 66 APPENDIX 

Stonewall Jackson, the greatest general in the Southern army, 
so he tendered his resignation, but was not fully relieved from 
duty. This statement is made from the personal knowledge 
and experience of O. W. Streeter. 

HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE. 

A Brief Sketch of the Closing Scenes in the Life of 
Gen. James Shields. 

Irishmen and Soldiers, Read ! 

Few Americans or adopted citizens of the United States 
have made a better record during the last half of the first 
century of our national existence, upon the battle field, or in 
the halls of Congress in behalf of the people, and in our cher- 
ished institutions, than Hon. James Shields. 

His brilliant achievements at the battle of Cerro Gordo and 
Chapultepec during the M exican War, where he was shot through 
near the region of the lungs, but survived after a silk handker- 
chief had been drawn through his body to remove the coagu- 
lated blood and open a passage, won for him the confidence 
and admiration of the American people. And it was this re- 
markable incident that brought his name so prominently be- 
fore the public, and the great enthusiasm that greeted his re- 
turn at the close of the war prompted the legislature of Illinois 
to present him with a valuable sword in behalf of the people 
of that State, and South Carolina, following the example of 
Illinois, presented him with another. 

From the battle field and tent we follow his meandering trail 
to the Senate of the United States, where he was seated by the 
State of Illinois, and where the statesman and soldier again dis- 
tinguished himself as an able defender of the Constitution of 
his adopted country and the rights of the people. In 1858 he 
was chosen to represent the State of Minnesota in the Senate 
of the United States, and was subsequently honored with the 
same position by the State of Missouri, making three States 



APPENDIX 167 

that he represented in the Senate of the United States — a 
higher honor than has ever been conferred upon any other 
man, living or dead, and a prouder position in public life than 
to be President of the United States. 

We find the soldier and statesman at the close of an event- 
ful life, retired with his little family upon a small farm of 
eighty acres near CarroUton, Carroll County, Mo., worn out in 
the public service of his country, old and poor, and unlike 
many of the statesmen of modern times, who preach reform and 
retire with a fortune at the close of a single term, he had noth- 
ing left and acting upon the advice of friends, decided to apply 
to Congress for a place. 

On his arrival at Washington he asked the Democratic House 
of Lords for the position of doorkeeper and was refused and 
was finally compelled by the force of circumstances to take the 
field as a public lecturer, where he remained until his death. 
And not the least effort was made in or out of Congress to re- 
lieve the family, as has been done in other cases — or has a 
single dollar been asked for or appropriated by a Democratic 
House to erect even a slab or anything of national interest to 
mark the last resting place of the Patriot and Soldier; nor has 
either of the three States that he represented so faithfully and 
honestly in the Senate of the United States manifested the 
least interest in that direction. Shame on such ingratitude and 
all honor to the State of Illinois for the noble example it has 
set for her sister States and the nation to follow in the liberal 
appropriation recently made by the Legislature of that State for 
a monument to General Logan ; a grateful acknowledgment of 
the eminent services of a great and worthy man, but is General 
Shields less deserving ? 

When the South attempted to dissolve the Union and openly 
defied the power of the Federal Government and insulted our 
flag, the old general was again called to the front and was the 
first to defeat Stonewall Jackson at Winchester, Virginia, in 
1862. The battle was fought in an old pasture on the right- 
hand side of the National Pike, going south, and about one 



1 68 APPENDIX 

and a half miles south of the city of Winchester. In the midst 
of that deadly conflict, when the chances for victory were about 
even, General Shields rushed to the front, and taking a position 
upon an elevation that made him the target for the enemy, 
cheered his brave soldiers, who, following his example, rushed 
upon the enemy and won the battle by storm. And it was then 
the Old Hero looked out upon the retreating army of Jackson 
and smiled, notwithstanding he had received a wound, in his 
left arm from a shell, which he had carefully concealed from his 
men until the old flag waved in triumph, when he was found so 
weak from the loss of blood that he was helped from the field. 

And yet the historian, either through ignorance, prejudice or 
the irresistible influence of party power, walked blindly over one 
of the brightest pages of American history and doubtless feels 
as much surprised at this time over the discovery of the missing 
leaf as a wandering ghost in a deserted grave-yard. 

Irishmen and Soldiers of our common country, are you satis- 
fied with such ingratitude and unjust discrimination ? If not, 
organize in every town and city, and if your representatives re- 
fuse to act, contribute your mite and with what others will 
freely give, a suitable monument can be reared to him whose 
name will live with generations to come and grow brighter upon 
the green leaves of holy memory, that will ever linger around 
the grave of the hero and statesman, where the Stars and the 
Stripes with the Shamrock are mutually blended and folded to- 
gether. 

O. W. S. 

June 7th, 1889. 



APPENDIX 169 

LETTERS FROM GEN. JAMES SHIELDS. 

Washington, January 3, 1857. 
Hon. O. W. Streeter, St. Paul, Minn. 
Dear Sir : 

Your note which you handed me before I left I have 
read and destroyed. The letter is not needed as a reminder. 
'Your devotion and energy in the late contest will not soon be 
forgotten by me. As yet I am the only one of the delegation 
here. There will be no opposition to our admission at once. 
There may be some objection by three members, but not much, 
I hope. I have seen the print. Douglas was in New York 
and has only returned. I have not seen him, but shall see him 
to-day. There is a good deal of feeling on the Kansas ques- 
tion. Still I do not think there will be a rupture. We are not 
expressing any opinion until in the Union. The Filibustering 
is, next to Kansas, the exciting subject. This will be a very 
interesting session. Mr. Goodrich promised to print a list of 
all the members, with their residence post-ofifice, and I will 
remind him of it. Your friend, 

JAS. SHIELDS. 

Washington, April 3, 1858. 
Hon. O. W. Streeter. 
My Dear Friend : 

Your letter has been lying on my table a few 
days because I wished to be able to see the action of the 
House on the Lecompton bill before writing. On the first the 
vote was taken indicating the defeat of that bill. The issue is 
now fairly made between the Senate and the House, and no 
one can tell how it will end, but my opinion is Lecompton is 
dead. Now as to Minnesota. It is still hung up in the 
Senate. There will be a trial of strength on the question I 
think next Monday. It will pass both branches I think soon, 
but I should not be disappointed to see an attempt made to 



1 70 APPENDIX 

reject it. I had hoped that before your adjournment you could, 
in concert with the most liberal and patriotic of the Republi- 
cans, take up a question which affects the honor and interest 
of the State and which is not a party question, because the 
Constitution is the work of both parties ; that is, in a calm, 
dignified appeal to Congress by a joint committee of your body 
show how much our State would suffer by being kept out of 
the Union ; that as a people we had been obedient to the be- 
hests of the General Government, and that as an honest, loyal 
people we looked to the General Government for justice and 
immediate admission. Such an appeal would have strength- 
ened the Democratic party and given it dignity and raised the 
character of the State. This was my opinion. Such a move- 
ment ought to have been made without any distinction of party. 
But I suppose I was wrong. Now let that pass. It has not 
been done. Our State is silent, and it would be expecting too 
much to see public opinion in the nation rise up to rectify a 
wrong that we did not seem to feel ourselves. Still North and 
South there seems to be but one opinion, and that is that 
Minnesota has been unjustly treated. 

Now I must say that all this struck me as wise, politic and, 
what is more, manly. So far as the Democratic party is con- 
cerned, you need be under no apprehension in my case as to 
my course. I am getting old. My whole course of public life 
has been Democratic, and what is strange, I never gave any 
vote but a Democratic vote, and what is certain, never will in- 
tentionally. But, thank God, I am too much of a Democrat to 
surrender my own convictions of right and wrong to any man, 
though he may be the President. I consider the President 
wrong in the Kansas policy. With this conviction I would be 
a dog and not a Democrat to uphold that wrong. I consider 
his policy wrong in keeping Minnesota out of the Union in 
order to force Kansas in. I cannot uphold this, either. I 
have not made this situation. I found it made and had to act. 
Our silence under this wrong was making us despicable. The 
worm turns when you tread upon it. I did it with sorrow, with- 



APPENDIX 171 

out passion and without bombast. I have considered what was 
right, and to the best of my poor abilities have done it. It will 
pain me to find that friends who agreed with me at home, and 
who have been so true and generous to me, may now differ 
from me ; but I tell you on these points my course is taken. 
There is not a public man in the Union to whom I am more 
attached than to James Buchanan. He is at the very pinna- 
cle of power, — and when my sense of right made me oppose 
his policy in relation to Kansas and Minnesota, you may be 
assured it is not a shallow feeling. I have no fears about the 
drivel of joining the Republican party. That may scare 
some ; it has no terrors for me. My character, my life, and 
convictions give the lie to any such charge. Douglas never 
fought a battle but in the front ranks of Democracy, yet he 
is called a renegade. This frightens fools and cowards. I 
will do right before God and man as I understand it, and no 
man or set of men have a right to drive me out of the Demo- 
cratic party. No, my course is to strengthen the party, to 
show good men that we can resist wrong, let it come from 
where it will; that we neither suffer Presidents nor Cabinets 
to dictate to us ; that wherever the people are wronged we 
are their defenders. This is real Democracy. Every honest 
man must feel this, and, what is more, this will prevail, Le- 
comptonism, with all its frauds, forgeries and perjuries, will be 
swept out of the land before six months. The South, as well 
as the North, is rising against it. It will remain a leper in the 
history of our country. Keep cool, my friend. I don't 
want you or any other man to join the Republicans, but we 
will make thousands of honest Republicans join us. 

Your friend, 

JAS. SHIELDS. 



172 APPENDIX 

Washington, April 30, 1885. 
O. W. Streeter, Esq. 

My Dear Friend : You are right about our relations. There 
is nothing could make me ever forget the manner in which you 
supported me in St. Paul. You have talents and energy and 
the most sterling fidelity, to judge from your course last winter. 
I cannot enter into a full statement of things here. Minnesota 
has nothing to expect but unjust treatment. The clique that 
rules not only the President, but the Government, at this time 
does not care a button for Minnesota. It is not in their count. 
A bold move at one time would have been followed through the 
Northwest, and just now this junto would be prostrate. New 
men would be in power and our officials put where most of them 
ought to be. The opportunity was not improved. I blame no 
one. You had other matters to attend to ; you had hopes 
that this conflict about Kansas would be settled, and the move 
at home appeared too bold and hazardous. I say, my friend, I 
do not blame you or any other of my noble friends, but I find 
we are not yet thoroughly disciplined as a party in our country. 
First, to make ourselves felt here we must have a strong, per- 
manent organization and party at home. This must be power- 
ful, knit together and self-reliant. Well, next, to be respected 
here, it is not necessary to acquiesce tamely and servilely to 
every fool project presented in the name of the administration. 
On the contrary the surest way to command influence and 
respect and wield patronage ever is to oppose what you think 
unjust, and when a State, or two or three do this, why it results 
in success. This is understood at the South. Southern men 
never hesitate to attack what they think wrong. States wheel 
into line and the administration succumbs. I take the liberty 
of opening this to you because I know you to be intelligent and 
gallant. In one word, nothing is obtained from such an admin- 
istration as this upon a principle of justice, but everything can 
be accomplished that is just and honorable from a principle of 
fear and respect. Now what was our policy at home : First, to 
strengthen our party at home by getting all the liberal men of 



APPENDIX 173 

the other party to unite with you on Douglas's position. This is 
a Democratic position. The Democracy can stand upon it at 
home, and home is the place to consider first. Secondly, to 
have got them to unite in an appeal, firm, just, bold and manly, 
to Congress to call for justice to Minnesota. No party can 
maintain itself that forgets the dignity and interest of its own 
State and people for a moment. You could have rallied a 
party on these two points that would have controlled Minne- 
sota for ever. Now had you gone into this boldly the North- 
west at that time would have followed and the Cabinet now 
would be remodelled. Minnesota had what military men call a 
commanding position. The administration by doing you a 
great wrong gave you the position ; well, you thought prudence 
the better part of valor, and said and did nothing to show that 
you felt the wrong and that you would look to yourselves for 
redress. Now understarid me, my friend; when I say you, I do 
not mean you personally, but the State, the whole people, and 
only speak of it as it appeared from abroad. But that is over. 
The past is gone. What next? I will tell you something. 
Rice will get nothing. He has no power here. Minnesota 
will get nothing as things stand. The President is an honest, 
conscientious man, but he has got himself in the hands of ruin- 
ists. They don't want a Northern Democracy — on the con- 
trary, they mean to destroy it. They have done it. One part 
they have enslaved and purchased and degraded. This part they 
despise. The others they hope to see beaten by the Repub- 
licans and put out of the way in that manner. I could tell you 
queer things on this point. You thought the selling and buying 
of votes in St. Paul by our opponents bad enough ; well, it is not 
a circumstance to Washington. What makes this discouraging 
is that the President is an honest, upright man and keeping his 
mind on Kansas. They can accomplish their plunder and 
spoliation. Were he a knave then God save the Republic, 
say I. The end of all this will in my opinion be the downfall 
of these men or the ruin of the Democracy. Your friend, 

JAS. SHIELDS. 



174 APPENDIX 

Headquarters Shields's Division, 

Near New Market, Va., May lo, 1862. 
Quartermasters and wagon masters on the route from these 
headquarters to Winchester, are requested to furnish the bearer, 
O. W. Streeter, Esq., transportation to the latter place. 

JAS. SHIELDS, 
Major- General Commanding Division. 

Carrollton, Mo., September 11, 1867. 
O. W. Streeter, Esq., 
Fort Scott, Kan. 
Dear Sir : 

I received your kind letter yesterday. It was with 
great regret that I learned you had visited this place last 
year in my absence. I wrote you a letter on my return, but 
evidently you never received it. Well, I am glad to hear 
from you once more and sincerely hope you will meet with suc- 
cess in your new home. My health is good and I am quietly 
plodding along as a farmer, in peace with the world. I hardly 
know what to think of the future. It looks more than gloomy, 
it is dark and dismal looking. The people have lost their rev- 
erence and respect for the principles of constitutional liberty 
that have been established by the wisdom of ages. They have 
got wild notions of government that indicate an intellectual as 
well as a moral deterioration. Will they recover from this ? 
There is the question — and it is a serious one — one that goes 
far deeper than ordinary politics. It is hard to say. A highly 
civilized people that can look with complacency upon what they 
call reconstruction in the South, that is, putting a civilized and 
refined people of their own white race under the control of an 
uncivilized and brutalized black race, are sadly and shockingly 
demoralized. The natural instincts and refined sentiments of 
such a people must of necessity have undergone a frightful 
change. In God's name and in the name of humanity let the 
negro have full justice done him. Let him have all the advan- 



APPENDIX 175 

tages the whites have and more than all if need be to improve 
and elevate his condition. Let everything be done to fit him 
to enjoy liberty and exercise power, but in the meantime let the 
whites continue to control who know how to do both. But the 
work is done and God knows how it will end. There is only 
one peaceful solution of this problem, a convention of all the 
States, and a reconstruction of the whole system. Without 
this it will end in a war of races in the South and something 
nearly as bad in the North. The Democratic party must save 
the country if it is to be saved. But that party is also greatly 
demoralized. If it were not it could carry the next President, 
for by that time the whole country will see that we are going 
the road of ruin. The reorganization of the Democratic party 
is now the only hope. It is about to reorganize, I think — Cali- 
fornia shows this. Ohio is showing it let the election go as it 
may, and if Pennsylvania and New York follow, it may prove 
successful. It is late to change, but the President by a firm 
course can still do much if he refuses to listen to traitors. I 
have hope that we are on the eve of a change in public opin- 
ion. I am glad you are pleased with your location. I hope to 
hear from you often. Poor Kavanagh ; I would like to hear of 
his success. I am told there is a great change in public senti- 
ment in Minnesota. Write me often. Give my best wishes to 
your family. Your friend, 

JAS. SHIELDS. 



Carrollton, Carroll Co., Mo., June 24, 1874. 
O. W. Streeter, Esq., Tucson, Arizona Territory. 
My Dear Friend : 

I have this day received your letter, and 
wondered at it coming from Tucson. I am sincerely glad to 
hear from you and I sincerely hope you will be successful 
every way. If you are as efficient now as you were when you 
helped so successfully to send me to the Senate, I would pre- 
fer you to a dozen of those I have now. I met with an acci- 



176 APPENDIX 

dent last year — a broken thigh — and am still lame; I fear I 
will never wholly recover. My health is otherwise good. I 
have some acquaintance with Lee Bashford. He stood high 
in his State. I believe he is a high-spirited man. Missouri, 
as you know, is Democratic, but party ties are not strong; 
here people have grown tired of party. I passed through 
Tucson in i860. It is a very beautiful spot. I suppose it has 
improved much. The climate is hot, but delightful. Let my 
old friends know that I am still in the land of the living and 
live a very quiet, happy life. I care little for public life now. 
I will follow you now with interest, so write me from time to 
time. Your sincere friend, 

JAS. SHIELDS. 



United States Senate Chamber. 

Washington, February 6, 1879. 
Hon. O. W. Streeter, 
Caledonia, Minn. 
Dear Friend : 

Your letter reminds me of old times and old 
friends. You may rely upon me to do all in my power for 
anything you have an interest in. 

With best wishes. 

Your old friend, 

JAS. SHIELDS. 

THE HOME OF GENERAL EWING ON MONU- 
MENTAL HILL. 

The writer was one of the number who occupied places on 
the train that conveyed the remains of General Ewing, with his 
family and friends, from New York to Yonkers, where hundreds 
had assembled to take the last fond look at his deserted tent of 
clay, once the seat of life and thought, but now cold and inani- 
mate, and as we gazed upon that familiar face we thought that 



APPENDIX 177 

all could plainly see the faint smile that still lingered to present 
the beautiful picture of the saintly farewell of the soul to the 
body, leaving a bright index to the golden pages of his public 
and private life. His wisdom and ripe experience placed him 
far in advance of the age in which he lived. His record as 
statesman and general won for him the gratitude of the nation 
and the admiration and respect of his countrymen. 

And when the floral casket was closed, and he was borne to 
his last resting place, eyes were bedewed with tears and a 
thoughtful silence that seemed to mingle with eternity closed 
the solemn and impressive service. And viewing the chosen 
spot that holds within its sacred grasp his honored clay, that 
must yield to the law of its own creation and mingle dust with 
dust, we turned from the scene to take the parting look at his 
beautiful home on Monumental Hill that overlooks from its 
moulded summit the- Hudson River with its delightful scenery 
and unwritten pages that nature has so plainly marked upon 
its historic shores and romantic hills through which this moun- 
tain stream has carved its way to meet and hug the tide, where 
memories still linger to fire the patriotic heart of generations 
to come, is where we laid him. 

Fit place for the soldier, statesman, patriot, lawyer and jurist 
to rest , where the Hudson keeps the faithful record of time 
and tide, while the endless ages come and go. 

O. W. Streeter, New York, 1896. 



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